Kingdom Hearts- Truth behind a heart
by shadowknight226
Summary: "Heartless and Nobody's, creatures of darkness governed by hearts. our Hero Maia shall venture through the worlds to find the truth behind the hearts while facing terrifying foes. Creatures created from Emotions shall hinder her while her past shall find her. find out the truth behind the reports and there creator" I hope you enjoy my first fan-fiction assisted by Dark Zekrom
1. prolouge

**Kingdom Hearts **

...Truth behind a heart

"_Heartless, mindless drones created by hearts. Nobodies, formed from the empty vessels whose heart was taken by the heartless. When both are reunited, the true form of the individual shall appear... but since a Nobody can form his own heart, what becomes of their real heart?" – D-Report 2_

**Prologue –** Warm greetings and sweet tea

It was a warm summer's breeze that swept through the town of radiance, birds flutter and tweet there song as they pass by the joys and harmony of the people bellow. The residence of this great land help each other to rebuild their lives after its history, Radiant Garden has shined its light, casting off the darkness that once loomed over its land.

The warm glow of the sun shines over the tall structures of homes, flickers of rainbow reflect off a cool refreshing fountain as the water spouts and casts a mist over a family of three. Across the fountain stands the immense delight of Mrs. Potts cafe, a place of warm greetings and cosy chairs where visitors can enjoy a warm beverage and the sweet taste of her treats. As a regular customer for Mrs. Potts delights, Maia A delightful and vibrant girl of sixteen sits comfortably and stares into her last drops of tea. A girl of luscious violet hair and flowing black dress of vivid and strange designs lets out a sigh after her lips savour the last taste of her sweet tea. Maia has a fondness of sweet tantalising delights and was saddened that her tea was all gone.

She slumped on the glass table, her head nestled on her folded arms and her soft hair curled on her shoulders, she starred her blue glistening eyes onto her empty cup... but suddenly in the corner of her eye she glanced, a shadow among the cluster being casted of by the populace briefly caught her attention as it disappeared into the crowed. With her attention now firmly on finding this glimpse of shadow she stood up with a sudden move while clanking her chair as she rose. The sudden sounds and movement caught the brief attention of other patrons but soon continued their interest into their tea and biscuits.

Maia stood firm and tall, the sun reflecting on her violet and black palindrome that rests on her right shoulder and glistens on her shaded dress as the mist of vapour nestles onto the fabric. She takes a stance with her dark blue laced boots firmly on the ground, her hand twitches as an object approaches, but the firm glare on her beautiful face soon melts into a smile as she gleefully waves and jumps for joy at the sight of an old dear friend.

A blue jay, no smaller than the palm of her hand glides towards Maia as she reaches out with a stretch of her left finger. The blue jay with a shade of golden yellow feathers perched on Maia's finger and began to tweet as the young girl smiled with her pearly white teeth, "why hello there Azure" she giggled "what brings you out here, have you come to join me for tea" she hoped.

Maia's attention soon grasped on the ring that's securely adorned around Azure's leg, and wrapped around the ring was a piece of small paper. With her face beaming with joy slowly turning to a calm composure, she reached out to the paper with her other hand and removed it from Azure's leg. As she unravelled the paper, a crimson pentagram shone into her eyes as she was slowly lost in thought, it was magic, Words faded into Maia's mind and then faded away. She stared at Azure as she began to focus back into the world around her, and she nodded a gesture that showed she understood what must be done. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a magic piece of paper of her own and spoke in a stern voice towards her own pentagram "mission acknowledged".

With her own message attached to Azure's ringed leg, she let the bird fly off into blue clear sky, Maia watched her friend slowly disappear with a small smile on her face knowing that she will see him again. Maia began to slowly stroll towards the fountain as she contemplates about the message Azure brought "reports of small bands of heartless in Deep Jungle" it had read. At the fountain Maia reached into her back pocket and grabbed a small amount of Munny clenched tightly in her hand, as she unravelled her hand she tilted it to allow the Munny to roll and drop into the fountain. She stared at her rippled reflection and thought of her parents and a promise she made long ago.

With her mind at ease and with a calming sigh she looked forward and gestured her hand across her palindrome, a bright light of magic enveloped her and adorned her with glistening black armour with purple trim covering her body from head to toe. Reflections of onlookers in the visor of her helmet gasp in awe in the spectacle they have just witnessed, Maia just stood perfectly still as she reached forward with her right hand and griped as if she was holding something. Another white flash of light sprang forth from her hand as a weapon of sorts appeared in her grip. It was an oddly shaped curved blade with a broken chain at the hilt, spectators gasped and whispered to each other "a Keyblade" "it's a Keyblade", inside her helmet Maia smiled as she enjoyed the attention she was attracting and she was just getting started.

Maia threw the blade into the air as the spectators stood in silent as they wondered what would happen next. In mid flight, the blade broke off from the handle and split into six perfect versions of itself and dived towards Maia, she stood perfectly still. Before the blades reached her they diverted and struck the ground behind her as the handle of the blade followed and gracefully attached itself to Maia's back, the six blades tilted its ends towards her and without warning they shot out the ground into the handle on her back. The crowd of people gasped as they had expected the worst, Maia just giggled as the six blades extended and form six beautiful metallic wings with shades of black and violet, without a moment's notice she soared into the sky with incredible speed. The crowd cheered at the spectacle until she was gone from their sight and all that remained was the six grooves in the ground were the blades struck.

In the sky Maia happily giggled with excitement from witnessing there expressions, she love to show off as much as she love to fly with the feeling of the wind gush past her and the incredible sights below her. With a happy bounce in her voice she screamed "here I come Deep Jungle" as she soared towards a portal of purple and blue energy.

Back in Radiant Garden not far from Mrs. Potts cafe, down an ally hidden in shadow an object began to form and took the shape of a small creature of darkness, a heartless with golden hollow eyes had seen the entire event.


	2. Chapter 1

"_The experiment was a failure, what a fool I was for thinking that I could create and control my own personal nobody. Nothings left but an empty lifeless shell... no heart to become a heartless... an empty shell but with no soul it cannot become a Nobody. Although it was a failure, the results were...interesting." D-Report 5_

Chapter 1: Destiny's Embrace

Maia was gliding through the empty abyss that is called the lands of in-between, the currently known safe way to travel between worlds without the dangers of using a corridor of darkness. The abyss lit her way with vivid shades of aqua blue, the bright colour of the corridor shines brightly against her six razor sharp wings. As Maia occasionally flapped her wings, she began to sway to and fro and soon she began to lose focus and began to hum. Maia was blissfully unaware that she was now in a whole new world... the one in her head, the tune she hummed from her red lips was a sweet kind tune, a memory from her past, a reminder from her parents.

Maia unaware of the danger she was now in and suddenly realised far too late, as she was swaying she was gliding closer and closer to the edge of an oncoming world. Her left wing was caught in the barrier of the world, she tried frantically to remove her wing from the immense pull of the world but she was eventually sucked in.

Flashes of memories entered her mind, brief glimpses of happier times and a few... she would have rather forgotten, one memory in particular stayed in her focus longer than the others. It was of a little girl, a much younger Maia, she was holding her hand to someone she could not remember. Her memory began to blur and lose focus as she tried hard to remember this person, was it her mother or her father perhaps? All that remains of this memory is a brief glimpses of warmth in her heart... soon followed by brisk winds of coldness.

The memory of the brisk cold feeling suddenly made Maia open her eyes, she had lost consciousness for a brief moment and she suddenly realised the situation she was in and understood why the coldness felt so real. She was plummeting through the dark sky with a full moon glistening the pure radiance of light that beamed and glowed against her; Maia began to flail trying to regain control of her wings, but it was hopeless. Screaming as her armour began to break apart piece by piece and evaporating in pure light until only her helmet and wings remained, the dark shimmering water below crept closer second by second until with a sudden thud that was followed by the sounds of crashing waves, Maia had landed into the clear blue seas.

Maia surfaced with a gasp and a sigh of relief, the water dripped and streaked across her visor as her bare arms soaked from the water, rises and removes her helmet. Maia's violet hair shimmered and glistened with the water and the moonlight. The seas were calm, the water was shimmering, small ripples of water from Maia broke the stillness of the sea, Maia was alone... alone and cold.

With her panting and heart beating faster and faster, Maia frantically looked for any chance of land no matter how small it was. As the moon loomed over head Maia noticed something in the distance, though it was swallowed by the darkness of the night, Maia was sure it was an island. With a beaming smile on her face, she began to swim harder and faster towards the island "an island, an island, please be an island" she breathed heavily. It became clearer to Maia it was indeed an island.

The sea wading in and out across the golden sandy beach, depositing sand and shells and then taking them back out into sea again. A small crab scuttles by and stares at a body washed ashore sprawled on the beach face buried into the sand, small foaming bubbles comes from its mouth as its pincers click, click. The body groaned and twitched as the crab hurried away, it was Maia.

The sun soon crept its sleepy head over the horizon as three canoes docked at a nearby pier, from each canoe a person appeared, two young lads in their teens and a young lass accompanying them. The young lass with brown curled hair was wearing a short-sleeved white polo shirt, a plaid, sky blue tie, a pleated skirt of the same colour, navy blue knee-high socks, and black shoes. She was also wearing a small brown strap around her left wrist. One of the young men had dishevelled blond hair; he was wearing yellow and black shoes, a gauntlet on his left hand and a black glove on the other, a yellow jacket with a white hood and a blue pauldron and armour over his left arm. The dark dungaree-type outfit he wears over his other clothes is fastened with a black belt that has a metal chain and a silver pendant around his neck hanging on his chest. The over man was tall and muscled, with tan skin, brown eyes and long reddish-orange hair styled into a coif, a yellow vest top cut away at the stomach, yellow shoulder pad on his left shoulder, blue and yellow baggy trousers gathered above the ankle, brown armbands on each wrist with a blue and yellow armguard over the left one, and open sandals.

The trio of teens were laughing and giggling with joy "hey Tidus" cried out the young girl as she hurried down the pier "betcha you can't catch me" "you're on Selphie" laughed the younger blond haired man. Tidus began to chase after Selphie grinning and laughing but stopped in his tracks and turns around "aren't you coming Wakka" cried out Tidus to the tall muscled teen, in a strange accent Wakka cried back "soon brudda, I've just gotta get my ball ya". Tidus and Selphie ran off chasing each other as they went, Wakka watched and chuckled to himself and soon turned to his canoe.

As Wakka kneeled over the pier trying to reach his blue and white ball in the canoe, his face sweats and cringes as he stretched towards the ball, finger tips touching and batting the ball, Wakka suddenly lost balance and fell head first into his canoe with a thud. The water around his boat rippled as Wakka's legs hanged over "that wasn't a good idea ya" Wakka groaned rubbing his head.

With his ball now firmly in his hands, legs over his boat, Wakka sat up tall and smiled at his ball and then turned towards to sunrise, A hand shielding his eyes from the sun, Wakka sighed with joy. But something caught his attention in his left eye, as Wakka turned his attention towards this object his face turned to shock as he scrambled around his boat trying to stand up. "Tidus, Selphie" he cried out "there's a girl washed on the beach ya", Wakka hurried out of his boat, tripping onto the pier he sprinted over to the girl with his ball under his right arm.

Wakka skidded across the sand as he attempted to stop; he huffed trying to catch his breath with his knees deep in the sand as his friends arrived. "It is a girl" Selphie gasped, the trio gulped as Wakka reached over to the girl to see if she was alive, his hand slowly getting closer to her neck as a trickle of sweat broke from his forehead, his fingers just about to reach for a pulse. Suddenly the girl shot straight up onto her knees with a huge gasp scaring the trio of friends as they screamed, "ahhhh zombie" they cried.

Maia with her face covered in wet sand brushed her eyes and yawned "yaaawrn, what a nice nap" she softly spoke. The trio of friends didn't know what to say, they were speechless and confused. Maia slowly opened her soft dreary eyes and noticed the three teens in front of her, she giggled and smiled "sorry, did I scare you, it's just I was sooo tired from swimming here that I thought I should take a nap". The trio looked at each other and after a moment's pause they began to laugh with Maia soon joining in.

After brushing the sand off her face and clothing, Maia stood up with ease and began to look around at the scenery to deduce were she was. The area around her was covered in yellow sandy beaches, exotic trees, shrubbery, and wooden constructions. There was a Seaside Shack nearby and a large treehouse built into an enormous tree. A miniature island is settled next to the island and wooden bridge was connected to it. Past the Bridge, on the miniature island is a crooked palm tree that grows strange star shaped fruit. Maia and the group introduce themselves and laughed at how scared they were when they thought they found a dead body.

The sun blazed high in the sky as Selphie and Maia sat next to each other by the seaside shack, they watched the two boys play ball in the sand and they were having so much fun, Maia swept her hand against her brow as the heat was causing her to sweat. "Hey Selphie" she smiled, "where am I anyway, I was trying to go somewhere but along the way I sorta got lost" she chuckled nervously as the memory of her distraction shamed her mind, Selphie smiled and replied "you're on a place called Destiny Islands, it's a cool place were me and my friends hang out, it's like only a 10 minute boat trip here from the mainland" "more like 30 if you swan here" Maia laughed. "Heeey girls" Tidus cried out "me and Wakka are going to get some sea salt ice-cream" "we'll bring back a few for you two ya" Wakka added.

As the two boys raced each other to the boats, Maia turned to Selphie and asked "what's seas salt ice-cream?" she puzzled, "well" she replied "it's really salty and incredibly sweet, you'll like it, trust me" she grinned. Maia's eyes lit up real brightly "did you say sweet" she asked excitedly, Selphie replied nervously "errr, yeah", Maia bounced up and jumped for joy "yay sweets" she cried.

The blazing sun has barely hit the horizon, Maia and her new friends are sitting comfortably on the crooked palm tree as the sea air blew through Maia's hair. Maia was happily chewing on her ice-cream stick, sucking in the last remnants of sweet flavour; she giggled as she thought that it was the best thing she had ever tasted and hoped Azure would get a chance to try it someday. Maia remembered something and turned her head towards the strange star shaped fruit in the palm tree, "hey Selphie, what are those fruit anyway" she asked curiously, "oh those are Paopu fruit" she replied "If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what", Maia stared at the fruit and licked her lips "I wonder if it tastes sweet" she thought to herself.

Gulls flew overhead as Tidus turned to Wakka and said in a tired voice "you think it's about time we should be getting back", Wakka stretch his arms and yawned "ya brudda, it's about time", "awww" replied both Selphie and Maia in a depressed voice "do we have to" continued Selphie. As the trio left heading towards their canoes Selphie turned towards Maia who was still by the crooked palm tree "are you sure you won't come with us" she shouted "you can stay at my place for a while", Maia just smiled and shook her head. As the trio of friends began to depart Maia waved and shouted in an excited voice "I hope to see you guys again someday", Maia kept on waving goodbye until they were far out of site.

A small tear streaked across her cheek as she smile, "it's been awhile since I've made friends". The sun finally disappeared over the horizon as the sounds of bugs and the wind echoed in the air, the moon cradle and surrounded by the specks of light that littered the night sky, Maia was alone again...alone and cold.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

"_The fools think that they have won by banishing me to that barren wasteland of darkness, I shall have my revenge. After escaping that world I quickly needed a new place of residence to conduct my research, I found such a place in a world that lived in twilight away from prying eyes. I began to delve into the question of how I can achieve my revenge. My mind raced as I tried to find an idea, then it suddenly accord to me, why not beat them at their own game." D-Report 1_

Chapter 2: When darkness falls, shadows rise

Maia was bathing in the moonlight, lying on the crooked palm tree with one side of her body hanging off swaying in the breeze. She stared at a summoning crystal in the palm of her hand and wondered if it was time to go.

Nearby at the seaside shack, puddles of darkness began to emerge and form into small dark creatures with long antennae and glowing yellow eyes. Several of these creatures began to creep closer to Maia, closer and closer they crept as Maia just laid there in the light... suddenly Maia leapt from the tree and onto her feet, the creatures reacted in the way as if they were shocked and surprised. Maia made her stance and summoned her weapon in a bright flash of light, with a grin across her face she happily cried out "Heartless, we meet again". She lunged forward with great speed as the heartless jumped back; some of the creatures couldn't react in time and were vanquished in a puff of smoke. "Oh your only shadows, your no challenge at all" she said disappointedly, more and more shadows formed on the bridge and behind surrounding Maia and quickly leapt for her with their creepy dark claws. As the heartless swarmed around her body, Maia laughed as she swung her blade with great force that knocked back all shadows and vanquished many. She chased after the rest across the bridge, frantically swinging her blade while catching the stragglers and in a poof of darkness... they were gone.

Maia had reached the beach as she struck one last shadow, "that was too easy" she giggled "strange I didn't get a mission for this world though... huh maybe the heartless just got here" she pondered "oh well, while I'm here ill just finish off the rest of them" she giggled. Maia sensed more shadows forming behind her and quickly spun around to greet them with her blade, but with great shock implanted upon her face she did not expect to see this.

The heartless became a mass swarm that took form of a spiralling storm that struck the bridge with great force, the debri whizzed past Maia as she shouted "protect" and casted a spell. Hexagonal light surrounded Maia as she braced of impact.

The spiralling swarm struck the shield with great force and shattered it; the force sent Maia hurtling back across the sand. Groaning and full of scrapes and bruises, Maia struggled back onto her feet as the swarm attacked from above and struck her. The swarm of darkness scratch and clawed at Maia as she screamed in pain, they then dispersed towards the broken remains of the bridge to prepare for another strike.

Maia in great pain and bleeding from deep wounds across her body struggled to her feet, her legs shaking and her face bruised she dropped her blade from her weakened grip. The blade slumped to the ground as Maia stared at the swarm, angrily wishing for more power for she was not about to be beaten by mere shadows.

Her blade suddenly glowed as a beam of light enveloped her body; the swarm startled by this lunged forward to end this. Before the swarm of darkness reached her, they were struck by blinding fast speed and razor sharp blades. Maia had assumed positioned above the broken bridge hovering in the air, she had adorned her armour and wings. Maia stared through her visor at her metallic wings and realised her blade had answered her call for more power and acted on its own to protect her; she smiled and then smirked "I hope you realise I could have summoned this power on my own".

The shadow swarm began to regroup its lost numbers and reform into the dark spiral; they lunged at Maia as she disappeared. The swarm was caught off guard as Maia swooped from above and dived down in a spiral as her bladed wings pierced the swarm, each blade connected a heartless as they were vanquished into darkness. The shadows dispersed and fled into puddles of darkness as Maia stood proudly on the beach with the moonlight shinning onto her six magnificent wings of metal.

Something was wrong though, Maia could sense that the heartless were still nearby. She was about to take flight to investigate the source of darkness as a huge hand slammed onto her, a creature emerged from a shadow that blanked the sea turning it into a sea of darkness. Maia struggled to break free from the grip of the creature while her wings shielded her from the crushing force. Thoughts of her training raced through her mind as sweat poured from her forehead, and then it struck her, a memory with her master.

She remembered a garden full of flowers and the scent of fresh grass, a fountain displaying two stone fish was buried in moss. A middle aged man with white medium hair stared at a younger Maia with a solid expression and morning stubble across his jaw, Maia knelt in front of the strange man who wore a black sleeveless shirt with a white shirt underneath and black trousers scuffed with dirt. The man sighed while gripping his wooded cane by the handle "just because you believe your strong doesn't mean that your enemies won't be stronger, the heartless strength isn't solely in darkness but in numbers", Maia didn't reply, her head nodded in shame. With a small smile he continued "you are indeed strong, a worthy wielder of your Keyblade... Wraith, but remember what it represents", Maia slowly looked up with a confused expression. "Wraith means phantom, a weapon of darkness used for the light" he proclaimed, his hand gestured to his left as a dark portal appeared "corridors of darkness can be used in combat if used correctly" "wield your blade, don your armour, become a phantom and strike me" the strange man shouted as he opened his arms wide.

Maia opened a corridor of darkness beneath her feet and disappeared, the man smirked as Maia appeared from the ground behind him lunging towards him. As she lunged towards the man, he dissolved from her memory as Maia had subconsciously attacked the huge heartless from behind.

The massive, muscular, humanoid Heartless with black skin collapsed onto the beach as Maia hovered behind it with her glorious wings "well Darkside, is that all you got" she cried defiantly with her hands and arms open wide. Darkside responded by quickly swinging its right arm towards Maia; she quickly defended herself with her right wings and a protect spell then followed quickly with an attack with her left wings extending and removing Darkside's right hand after it made contact with her shield. The severed hand dissolved into darkness as Darkside followed suit, defeated and destroyed, the remaining darkness of shadows slowly lifted from the island, retreating in defeat.

Maia huffed in relief as she lowered onto the beach dispersing her armour and wings; Maia collapsed onto her knees as tears streamed from her eyes and she happily cried "I did it master... I did it father". Nearby atop of the treehouse that faced towards the beach, a figure of a young man with spiked hair and a creepy grin stared towards Maia, as he leaned forward he creepily laughed "he he ha ha haaa, she did it, she used the power of darkness", "but against those purebloods it was a waste of time he he he" he whispered to himself while trying to keep his excitement "mustn't let her know I'm here, daddy wouldn't like it he he haaa ha ha".

Dawn broke over the horizon as Tidus, Wakka and Selphie rowed there canoes towards the island. As they docked Wakka noticed the destruction and debri across the beach. The trio walked through the littered beach with shock and concern to Maia's whereabouts, Selphie then noticed a medium sized package made from palm leaves tied in a neat bow nestled on top of the sand by the shack. The trio hurried over to the package and Selphie picked up a letter that sat next to it. As Selphie began to read, the boys opened up the leaves and were shocked by what they found. "Sorry about the mess, I kind of got in trouble last night, my bad. I hope this is a good enough of an apology. Sincerely Maia", the boys picked up some of the contents and cheered "it's Munny", the trio laughed and cheered and Selphie silently thank Maia for their time together.


	4. Chapter 3

******Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.  


"_Those fools think that they can achieve their goals quicker by gathering more of their kind...fools. This just makes my plans go smoother; I shall just create a Nobody, one that will obey only me and let that organization find it and recruit it into their ranks, and soon I shall have my revenge." D-Report 4_

Chapter 3: Light fights and Dark Jungles

The sun rose high above a tropical jungle, birds flew by as a herd of gorillas were eating fruit in their nesting grounds. The area was full of huge tree roots and vines, the trees themselves reached far into the sky as the branches of leaves covered the sun casting specks of light down towards the jungle floor. The alpha male of the pack sat comfortably as he ate his meal, but something caught his attention, upward a shadow casted over the specks of light and was heading eastward towards the sea. The alpha male just shrugged as it was not a threat to his group.

High into the sky Maia soared through the open air, she flaps her wings gracefully as she dives closer to the tree tops. She glides into the forest and with grace and agile she manoeuvres over and under the branches casting a shadow across the jungle floor. As the forest trees begin to clear, Maia soars out of the clearing to a sight of wonder, a river leading from a waterfall surrounded by cliffs and animals like hippos and elephants in the pool of water grazing around huge rock structures.

Maia soon took off in search of her target; heartless, she had finally entered the world Deep Jungle. As she searched she noticed a wooden house in the distance and decided it was the best place to begin her search from the ground, as she got closer though it became clear that it wasn't a normal house. It was a huge tree house perched onto the trunk of a curved tree that grew out of a cliff edge; the house had a rickety bridge and a huge net under the structure, the place seemed deserted.

Maia soon landed on the houses doorway with quite a rough landing; she had stumbled onto the floor while trying to stop. Her armour disappeared as Maia picked herself from the floor "ow I think I hit my head, I gotta try smoother landings for once" she complained. She wiped her forehead from her sweat "blazing tropical heat and metal alloy armour was not a good combination" she thought. Maia soon began to investigate the house she was in; clearly the place was not as deserted as she had originally thought. The room was filled with books and scientific equipment; there was even a chalk board and a globe, the place was kept well despite of the obvious untidiness.

As she searched she noticed a picture with broken glass. Maia picked up the picture and gazed at the family it showed; a father, mother and child. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she dropped the picture to the floor, Maia cradled her face within the palm of her hand as she cried "father... where did you go..." A Short elderly man with a thick moustache, grey eyebrows and clad in yellow safari uniform and brown boots suddenly stumbled down stairs with a huge thud. Maia stopped crying and stared at this strange old man as his rubbed his balding head "oh by Joe that hurt" he laughed, the old man then noticed Maia and smiled "oh, hello there" he said "erm... hello to you to" replied Maia in a confused look.

The old man picked himself of from the dirty floor and brushed himself off, he walked other to Maia as he smiled "so, are you a friend of Tarzan's" he asked as he extended his arm for a handshake. Maia just stared at his hand and quickly replied "n no sir, I'm just here looking for heartless", the old man just smiled as his arm just stayed waiting for that handshake. Maia realised what he was doing knelt down to his height and shook his hand while introducing herself "I'm Maia, I'm on a mission to hunt down any heartless here" she smiled "Greetings Maia, I'm Archimedes a professor of science" he replied back cheerfully. Archimedes noticed Maia was in a bad way, she had cuts and bruises over her body and she had bandaged herself terribly but strangely her clothes were fine "well my dear let me take a look at you while you have some tea" he smiled while holding her hand gently.

Archimedes sat Maia down to a wooden chair and then went off to boil the kettle "he he, you caught me at a bad time Maia, I was taking a little nap when you popped by" he laughed "now what did you say your business was again" he asked. Maia barely paying any attention just quickly realised what he asked "oh erm, I'm here to find heartless" she flushed in embarrassment "oh are you here to study them" he asked curiously. Before she could answer Archimedes quickly asked another question "how many sugars would you like in your tea", Maia quickly looked at Archimedes with great excitement over her face "five please, five".

Maia was soon joined with Archimedes and a pot of tea; she watched him pour her tea into a cup and happily watched him stir in her sugar, She quickly grabbed her cup and begun to slowly sip "you sure do enjoy tea huh" he laughed "only the sugar" she happily replied. As Maia enjoyed her tea Archimedes tended to her wounds with drops of healing potion, as her wounds slowly begin to heal Maia poured herself more tea and sugar as Archimedes smiled to himself "your blissful youth reminds me of Tarzan and Jane" he said while reminiscing. Maia soon began to ponder on who was this Tarzan that Archimedes kept mentioning but soon didn't care as it wasn't her mission to find out.

After tea and her wounds healed, Maia left for the front door and headed towards the bridge. As she left she thanked the old man for his pleasant company and soon ran across the bridge towards the forest "good luck dear girl, and if you see Tarzan say that I said hello" Archimedes cried out.

The jungle was thick and incredibly hot as Maia waded her way through the thick vines and tall leaves, her boots crunched over the twigs and leaves and squelched on the wet mud. After a while of wading through and the occasional branch hitting her face, Maia soon came to a clearing and tripped over a root. She tumbled out into the clearing with a thud, as she looked up she saw something strange.

Many Heartless were fighting strange white creatures Maia recognised as Nobody's fighting in the clearing as a young girl around Maia's age commanded the Nobody's. The Heartless were many more than the Nobody's and even had some creatures called large body's fighting alongside the Shadows; the large body's were nearly spherical in shape, they also have massive arms and hands, short legs, huge feet, and tiny heads. These blue-skinned Heartless are clothed in a purple sleeveless bodysuit edged in gold trim with a massive manacle in purple and silver on each wrist.

The Nobody's consisted solely of thin sinuous bodied creatures that are capable of dumbfounding feats of flexibility. They have a large cylindrical heads with a flat top that is emblazoned with the Nobody symbol. Its body seems to be covered in a light grey jumpsuit, and its "mouth" is actually a zipper that undoes itself to reveal its actual, grey, sharp-toothed mouth underneath. It appears to be fairly muscular, though its arms and legs are very thin. The sides of its body are lined by a black line. Its feet and hands are pointed and lack digits, and its hands each sport two black bands around them. These creatures were known to Maia as Dusk's.

Maia watched while lying on the grass carefully studying the other young girl. She wore a white trench coat that is double-breasted and twin-tailed, with a hood emblazed with the nobody emblem and long sleeves. It has a large silver zipper that fastens at the top and zips down to seal the coat. It has silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fasten to a loop on either side of the collarbone region and boots that have narrow toes and prominent heels.

Maia slowly crawled to get a closer look of her face, she could clearly tell it was a girl but couldn't tell what she looked like. The white coated girl began to rise and hover over the battlefield as she noticed Maia and quickly raised her left arm signalling an order to her Nobody's. The Dusks nimbly manoeuvred around the heartless to strike at Maia. Maia unprepared quickly got on to her feet and was about to summon her weapon but the Dusks attacked first, knocking her of her feet to the ground. The two dusks prepared to strike again, suddenly the creatures were vanquished as a large body towered over Maia. Regretting the fact she could have done more, Maia prepared for the worst as she remembered more of her past.

A younger Maia sat comfortably in a small room full of books and a small table, Maia was reading intently into some research notes written by her father. Maia noticed a passage in the notes and quickly rose to her feet with great concern and ran straight out the door. Maia ran across the hallway and down a set of stairs into the foyer, she frantically began searching the rooms for her master "master...master, where are you master?" she cried out.

With all the rooms checked she ran outside into the courtyard and realised her master had disappeared, she began to cry and cried out "father where are you?" Suddenly a hand reached out from behind and grabbed her shoulder. Maia shook in fright as she spun around and was met by her master who stared at her with a stern look "what are you crying for girl, and I've told you before not to call me father, I am your master" he told her firmly. Maia took one knee to the ground and knelt to her master as she dried out her tears "I- I'm sorry master, I thought you were gone" she explained "and why did you think this" he asked as his temper began to rise, "I've been reading some of your notes and I thought" before Maia could finish her sentence her mast struck her across the face with his cane and shouted with fury "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU BEFORE NOT TO READ MY NOTES".

As Maia lay there crying and holding her cheek, her master stared at her coldly... but his temper subdued and he sighed "what am I going to do with you", he reached down for her hand and placed an item firmly in her hand. As Maia sobbed, she looked at her master and then to the item, it was a crystal of Azure blue "w-what is it master" she asked curiously "it's a summoning crystal used to assist you either in battle or in this case for the purpose of delivering messages" he explained. Her master struggled as he knelt down with help from his cane and he held her hand "I will be leaving you soon but know this, I will always be in contact with you through Azure" he said as he pointed to the crystal.

Maia was back into reality as the large body towered over her, she closed her eyes and realised that no matter what would happen next, she would always have her master close to her heart as she clutched hold of her crystal. A few seconds past and nothing happened, she slowly opened her eyes to see the heartless with its back to her, the strange thing was it was protecting her from the Nobody's "but why?" she asked the heartless with great confusion. There was no reply as the heartless vanquished more Dusks with its huge fists. More heartless grouped around Maia as she rose to her feet, more and more questions whizzed through her mind like "why are the heartless helping her when not too long ago they tried to kill her".

Another Dusk slithered its way through the heartless and was about to strike Maia, but a shadow got in its way. Maia realised with a great exhilaration they were actually on her side, she could now tell her master that the heartless are of no threat to them anymore, she summoned her weapon and now with both Wraith and heartless on her side she began to attack Nobody's.

Maia led a charge against the Dusks and the white cloaked girl with her heartless in tow. The white cloaked girl grinned as she opened a corridor of darkness and left, Maia tried to chase after her but the door closed before she could reach it. Left to deal with the remaining Nobody's, she struck and slashed her ways through the numbers as the large body's punched and the shadows pounced on the rest.

After a heated battle, only a small amount of heartless and Maia remained. She turned to the heartless with great exhaustion and bowed to thank them for their help "thank you so much, I couldn't have done it without you guys", a large body just nodded and soon the heartless disappeared into darkness. Maia was left alone on the grassy field surrounded by the forest as she pondered back to destiny islands "were they trying to attack me or take me" she wondered.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

"_Blast, just more failed attempts. Creating Nobody's at this rate is impossible, maybe it's my materials. I've destroyed their hearts and created a shell with a soul, in theory it should have formed a Nobody. Is it possible that Heartless and there Nobody form have a symbiotic relationship." D-Report 8_

Chapter 4: Winters and tropical jungles

Maia sat with her legs crossed and her head resting on her hand while in the open grassy fields, the wind blew through her hair and her blade rested beside her. Maia was still wondering about the heartless situation, she was sent here to destroy them but instead she helped them. She ruffled her hair in frustration as she could not decide what to do was she to turn her back on her master and gain heartless allies or was she to continue with her mission. Maia stood straight up tall as her frustration grew, with a deep breath she decided to contact her master.

Maia reached into her pocket to retrieve her summoning stone, but there was a problem. She could not find the stone in her pocket, any of them. Maia frantically looked for her stone with great concern but she couldn't see it anywhere. Once more she began to cry, she felt useless as she couldn't even follow her orders correctly, nearly lost to heartless on Destiny Island and not to forget her other blunders she did in the past.

As she collapsed to the ground and cried, Archimedes appeared struggling through the thick jungle. His foot got tangled in some vines as he struggled to get loose, with a pull and some effort he wriggled free. As Archimedes turn to look at the grassy field, he stared at grooves in the ground caused by the fighting. "Hmm" he pondered and he move closer for a better look "maybe evidence of elephant mating" he queried. His attention soon grasped on a shiny object in one of the grooves nearby, after investigating the groove he picked up the shiny object and gave it a good hard look "maybe the elephants use shiny objects to attract a mate?" he questioned.

Archimedes ears perked up as he heard crying, turning around he realised Maia was close by and went to investigate. Archimedes patted Maia on the shoulder to calm her down "there there girl, now tell old Archimedes what's the problem... you didn't get caught up in an elephant mating ritual did you?" he asked curiously with concern.

Maia plucked up the courage to explain what she had lost as Archimedes listened carefully, "a crystal you say, why didn't you say so, I just found this one earlier" he said cheerfully. He handed the jewel into Maia's hand and used a hanky he had in his pocket to dry her tears, "there there now that's better", Maia smiled and thanked him for all he has done to help her. Archimedes soon trotted off trying to find more elephant tracks as Maia watched him go with a beautiful smile on her face.

Maia looked at her gem and crushed it into her left hand; she slowly opened it up and blew the dust into the wind. She looked into the patchy sky as a blue energy portal opened up and Azure the blue jay popped out. The bird flew happily chirping towards Maia with a strange metal object in its talons, Maia opened up her hands as Azure dropped the object into her palms. Azure rested on Maia's shoulder as she looked at the metal thing.

The object was spherical in design with a silver and black pattern and a keyhole lock in the middle. Maia poked the keyhole wondering how to use this device, after she poked it the sphere suddenly opened up like a clam, shocking Maia as it did. The sphere revealed a small screen on one side and two buttons on the other, one said on while the other said off.

Maia pressed the on button and the screen lit up. Maia viewed the screen but all she could see was a back wall and an empty seat, a middle aged man soon sat in the seat as Maia's eyes lit up in excitement "master" she cried "it's been so long since I've seen you". "Greetings Maia, it has been some time (sigh) how goes your mission, I hope you are calling me to say you have completed it" he asked with a stern look. Maia couldn't bear to tell him the truth because she was afraid he was going to be mad at her, he can be very intimidating she thought.

Maia began to tell him some of the truth like how she encountered Heartless and nobody's clashing and the other strange girl in a white hood. Her master listened well and seemed more interested in the girl than the heartless, "and you say she wore a Nobody emblem" he asked curiously, Maia nodded as her master's curiosity grew. "I'm getting strange readings near your location, perhaps it's this girl you mentioned... your new mission is to find out the source of this signal and retrieve the girl...alive...there may be things she can tell us" he informed her as he turned off the screen.

Maia was relieved he did not suspect a thing but was worried at the possibility that he may find out. The spherical communicator disappeared in a white flash; Azure flew off into the blue energy portal and the portal soon dematerialised into a summoning crystal to which Maia caught in her hands as it fell.

Now Maia was wondering which way to go as she could not sense anything strange nearby. A puddle of darkness appeared in front of her as a shadow emerged, the creature stared at Maia then it walked off into the direction of a lagoon and the waterfall. Maia pondered if the heartless was leading her to the strange readings and soon hurried off after it.

Maia traversed through the jungle, climbing trees and jumping of branches and even having to swim just to keep up with the heartless. It slowly occurred to her that despite the jungle being so hot earlier in the day, she was beginning to shiver. The more she followed the heartless into the jungle the colder it got, Maia began to suspect the heartless of it leading her into a trap but suddenly her eyes gazed on a object she did not expect.

It was a young man in loincloth, frozen in a block of ice. The heartless stood by the ice block as Maia inspected it. She tapped and hitted it with her weapon but it did not crack, she then tried using a fire spell but it didn't even cause it to melt. Maia stroked the ice and noticed it was dry, not even a drop of water on it.

The heartless soon began to walk off, Maia turned to see which way it was going and noticed that the trees were battered and broken as a frosty past of ice and snow littered its way towards the lagoon. She followed the heartless down the wintery path, she huddled her arms trying to keep warm as the air got colder. Several animals and birds she past by was also encased in ice, Maia was becoming frightened as she wondered what could have done this.

The heartless led Maia to a clearing, the lagoon was encased in glittering ice and the waterfall was frozen solid, rocks of ice littered across the frozen lagoon. Maia walked carefully across the ice as the snow crunched under her feet; she inspected the rocks of ice and noticed that something was in them. "Heartless!" she cried with concern, the shadow heartless next to her pointed across the lagoon as a male figure with long light blue hair and black skin like clothing that covered parts of his body, slowly emerged from behind a ice rock. A large body heartless charged towards this young male as he simply raised his arm and pointing towards the heartless and swiftly clicked his fingers. The heartless was quickly encased it ice, the young man walked over to the sculpture and did a simple kick that shattered the ice. A single heart emerged from the heartless to which the young man grabbed it, he licked his lips as he opened his mouth wide and ate the heart hole. A small crackle of energy surged through his body as the heart filled him with emotions.

The young man's attention turned to Maia who had hid herself behind an ice block with the shadow heartless clutched in her arms. She shed a tear which froze as it fell from her cheek, although she previously had hated the heartless, she could not forget their kindness to save her. The shadow heartless reached for Maia's forehead and placed his claw on her, words and images passed through her mind as the creature taught her a new spell and skill to defend herself with.

The young man walked closer to Maia and as he got closer he peered over the ice block, but only to find no one there. Maia had opened a corridor of darkness and stood a distance behind the young man and had her weapon at the ready. The young man turned around and only showed a blank expression as if he wasn't even bothered, "who are you?" he asked while barely moving his lips. "I'm Maia Resin of Radiant Garden" she cried out confidently. "Maia... Resin..." he repeated, "I...am Apathy... born from darkness... created from emotions", Apathy raised his arm again, Maia quickly thinking that he's going to attack her decided to use her new technique. She ran towards Apathy across the dry ice and threw her wraith blade at him "STRIKE RAID" she cried out as the weapon spun in rapid succession and formed bright energy and turned into a spinning blade.

Strike raid quickly reached Apathy who just watched it calmly with his left arm still raised, before the attack made contact, Apathy in a blinding speed raised his other arm and caught Maia's weapon. He looked at it and analysed the blade "key...blade... no...Just wraith... phantom of former self...fake" he calmly assessed. Maia stood there in shock as she could not believe he caught her blade with such great speed and precision, she then realised that Apathy called her blade a fake "HOW DARE YOU CALLED MY KEYBLADE A FAKE, MY MASTER BESTOWED IT UPON ME HIMSELF" she shouted angrily back, "no...Keyblade...fake" Apathy replied back as if he was mocking her.

Some large body's began to form behind Apathy as Maia's shadow friend had called for backup, there was also another heartless group; soldiers appeared, they looked like noble knight-type warriors with bluish-black body suit bearing the Heartless emblem and purple inverted emblems trimmed in gold on the knees. They wear black, silver trimmed shoes that end in spiral toes, silver wristbands, and a silver knight's helm decorated with two angular, eye-like spirals on the front and a yellow stripe at the base of the curled silver plume.

The soldiers began to strike with their fierce blue and red-tipped claws; they attacked and clawed at Apathy who just stood calmly holding Maia's wraith blade. Maia watched in horror as Apathy swung his arm and sliced the soldiers with Maia's own blade and effortlessly channelled his ice powers down the blade as an ice blast struck the large body's freezing them in place, with a gesture of his hand the large body's shattered into pieces. With his right hand opened as if they were clutching something big, he raised his right arm and summoned the floating hearts from the deceased heartless towards him and he quickly ate them in a mouthful. He then threw Maia's blade casually to her feet as the emotions filled and flowed through his body in a huge euphoria. His face turned from great exhilaration back into a clam blank expression as he blankly stared at the lone shadow heartless, Maia quickly grabbed her blade and ran in front of the heartless to protect it from Apathy. As she made her stance and was prepared for Apathy's attack, a cold sweat dripped down her forehead, she was scared.

Apathy raised his left arm and clicked his fingers; Maia was quickly becoming encased in cold freezing ice. Her entire right side of her body froze along with her weapon, as the rest of her body will soon be encased in ice too. Trying to hold it together as she tried to think about the increasing cold she tried to think of a plan as she stared worryingly at the heartless, then it occurred to her. She forgot to try out her new spell.

Using her free hand she reached towards Apathy as a ball of fire built into her hand, Apathy broke out a small grin "that...won't work" he casually told her. Apathy's grin disappeared as darkness began to swirl and mix into Maia's fire, the blazing ball turned into purple flames as Maia shouted "FREEZE THIS" and the ball fire out a stream of purple blazing heat that enveloped Apathy. Apathy writhed as if he was in pain but did not scream.

Maia used her new found power on the ice that encased her and melted it, she was free. The purple blaze that struck Apathy slowly dissipated and only a puddle of melted ice remained, Maia felt pleased as she believed she had won.

Suddenly the shadow heartless was kicked aside; Maia spun around and was grabbed by the throat as Apathy raised her from the ground. Maia struggled to wriggle free from his grasp but failed, his hands began to freeze her neck and Maia began to choke. Laughter filled the air but neither Maia nor Apathy was laughing.

Far behind their struggle, atop of the frozen waterfall crouched a young man with crazed spiked jet black hair and a creepy grin, he wore similar black skin like clothing just like Apathy. The creepy young man cradle himself with one hand as he chewed the other with his creepy grin, "Looks like you need help Apathy he he haa" he muffled.

In a split second the creepy man disappeared from the waterfall and appeared behind Apathy "what...do you want...Insanity" Apathy asked. Insanity just rose into a hunched position and jabbed his hand into Apathy's back and laughed insanely. Maia watched in horror as Insanity began to turn into an oozing black substance that enveloped Apathy.

Apathy dropped Maia as he clutched his face in pain, soon his groans turned into laughter as his appearance changed and ice began to coat his body in a layer armour. Apathy collapsed onto his knees as the transformation was complete, his hair changed into a combination of light blue and jet black and its length shortened and looked more crazy. Apathy cradled his face into his hands as he giggled madly.

Maia watched in horror as Insanity began to turn into an oozing black substance that enveloped Apathy. Apathy dropped Maia as he clutched his face in pain, soon his groans turned into laughter as his appearance changed and ice began to coat his body in a layer of armour. Apathy collapsed onto his knees as the transformation was complete, his hair changed into a combination of light blue and jet black and its length shortened and looked more crazy. He cradled his face into his hands as he giggled madly. Maia lay still on the frozen floor in fear at the sight of Apathy's and Insanity's combination. The shadow heartless began to flee as it felt the great surge in power held within Apathy.

Cradled on the frozen lagoon, with his face hidden Apathy giggled as he raised his left arm in a droopy fashion. Suddenly all around the lagoon, massive spires of ice enveloped the frozen battleground; the heartless stopped cold in his tracks, there was not exit or any chance to escape from this insanity of an emotion.

The heartless then ran towards Maia who still laid perfectly still, staring towards Apathy, the creature tried to nudge and shake Maia to move and get away, but she just slowly turned her gaze towards Shadow.

Suddenly a harsh shrieking noise emerged from Apathy as he rose onto his bare feet, the sun shined and glistened on his ice armour. His eyes wide open with murderous glare and a huge grin across his face "he he ha ha ha haaa, afraid, afraid, afraid" he giggled repeatedly.

A sudden surge of pain shot through Maia as she coughed up blood, Apathy with incredible speed had Maia pinned to an icicle spire with only his fist pressed hard against Maia's waist, the spire crack and shattered as Maia hurtled across the ice field like a rag doll. Sprawled face down to the ice Maia, with her eyes drooping watched Apathy walk closer and closer to her, giggling uncontrollably. He stood tall in front of Maia and he quickly picked her off the floor by the throat and rapidly thrusted his fist into her face. He soon stopped and hurled her across the field with huge enjoyment in his eyes, Maia collided mid-air into several ice spires and smashed through each one. Maia lay cold face down on the ice as Apathy walked closer to her. Maia watched as Apathy inched closer second by second, she tried to move but her body was too battered to allow her.

Maia's eyes soon wondered towards the rocks ice with heartless still encased inside, a question arose in her mind "why did Apathy eat their hearts... does he gain power from doing so". That revelation inspired Maia as she thought hard about her training with her master; there was something important he said about Keyblades and hearts.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

"_Time, so much time wasted, blast it, Even IT was a waste of time. Before I completely abandon my refuge I shall release Plan B. They say that one's emotions are the most powerful part of your own heart, for emotions can manipulate and grow in power from other hearts. My newest creations shall go forth and collect hearts and become more powerful than the organisation. Vengeance shall at last be mine" D-Report 9_

Chapter 5: The door to my heart

Maia delved deep into her memories, back to the early stages of her training. She remembered her home town, a town of twilight were the sun never sets or rise, just endless sunsets. Twilight Town it was called and it was the place where her dreams of wielding a Keyblade began.

A very young Maia was sat down on a green bench in a small part of town called The Sandlot, where buildings surrounded the area and the clock tower loomed tall in the distance. Maia sat and watched as two young boys play fighted with blue weapons called Struggle bats, Maia smiled and giggled when one boy lost and the other cheered and gloated he was the winner. A young girl ran up to the two boys and tugged on the arms, soon all three ran off further into town while Maia waited patiently for her Master.

Hours past as the sandlot became emptier and emptier as the people soon left and Maia was all alone. Silence fell over the sandlot and only the sound was of a young man with his cane walking over to Maia. "Father" Maia cried out smiling, the young man barely reacted to her cry as he stood tall in front of Maia "(sigh) I told you once before to call me master" he told her firmly. Maia's smile faded as the young man raised his left arm, Maia cringed as she thought he was going to hit her again. But instead he just summoned a weapon in a flash of light and gripped it into his hand; Maia stopped cringing and stared in amazement at his weapon. It looked like a long broadsword with key teeth at the end and black wings for a hilt, it also had a symbol hanging on from a short chain.

"This is a Keyblade, a weapon of unimaginable power and abilities" he explained "what kind of abilities" Maia curiously asked, "The Keyblades signature ability is the power to open or close any lock or door, be it to a physical object, to the heart of a person or world, or to a gate or pathway between worlds" he replied as he broke a smile. "You too shall one day wield a Keyblade" he proposed, "Wow... can I hold it... please" she begged. The young man placed his Keyblade into Maia's hands "cool, do they have names" she curiously asked, the young man grinned as he replied "he's called Ragnarok".

Two years later... the sound of swords clashing ringed through the air. Maia was wielding her Wraith blade as she frantically attacked and swiped at her master who just stood there with his blade blocking each and every attack. The young man hasn't even broken a sweat while Maia was breathing heavily "don't you dare stop no, keep at it" he ordered "come on and hit me". Maia mustered up more strength and her attacks quicken, but her master reacted quickly by using one hand to block and used his blade to open her defences. Defenceless Maia was struck by her master's fist as he causally announced "try again". After hours of training, Maia's master had enough "stop...we'll try again tomorrow" he sighed as Maia collapsed on her behind. "If you cannot even hit me, how do you think you'll fare against the heartless?" he asked seriously, Maia couldn't answer has she struggled to breath "(sigh) remember your purpose, your mission... each heartless you vanquish releases a heart, and once I have completed my experiment we will be able to find out the truth behind a heart" he explained. "The... (Huff) truth" Maia exhaustedly replied, "Yes Maia the truth... and remember it's your Keyblade that shall unlock the hearts of the truth" he proclaimed.

Back in the present, Apathy possessed by Insanity was still making his way across the frozen lagoon towards Maia, giggling madly as he went. Apathy stood next to the beaten and bruised Maia and kicked her onto her back. Apathy then knelt down and grabbed Maia by the throat by his left hand and readied his fist in his right... but something was wrong, Maia smiled at Apathy who only giggled back, but then he gazed at Maia's right hand which was holding her blade which had pierced Apathy's heart.

Apathy's mad grin turned into a sad frown; suddenly hundreds of hearts burst from his back and littered the battlefield. Apathy writhed in pain as he struggled to remove the blade, but Maia held tightly to it. Behind Apathy, the hundreds of hearts turned into heartless... soldiers and large body's who all looked towards Maia's battered body and the stared at Apathy eager to fight.

Apathy punched Maia, causing her to lose grip of her blade. Apathy rose and greeted the heartless army with a grin while Maia's blade still embedded his heart. He gripped the blade and ripped it out hard, his wounded oozed a black substance which quickly healed the hole. Apathy stared at the weapon and licked his black substance of the blade and dropped it to his feet.

The heartless charged towards Apathy as he raised his right arm and clicked his fingers, many heartless froze into place. But Apathy's crazed grin turned to shock as the heartless broke free from there prison, groups of dark pools opened on the battlefield around Maia and swallowed her into its dark grip. Shadows emerged from the dark pools behind Apathy and swarmed together to form a spiral. Apathy realised why Maia aimed her weapon at his heart, it was to release the many hearts he had obtained and gained power from, and now he had a few hearts left he was only slightly more powerful than the average heartless.

Apathy writhed in pain as Insanity oozed and removed himself from his body, as Insanity's black ooze formed his body, he grinned at Apathy and giggled "sorry he he ha haaa, she's good". Insanity formed his body back together and disappeared from the battle field.

Apathy turned back to normal with his long light blue hair and blank expression stared at the heartless masses "Insanity...Maia..." he mumbled. Apathy was suddenly attacked by the spiralling swarm of shadows; he fought his way to the top of the swarm and rode the swarm across the battlefield. He opened his mouth wide and a white light enveloped inside as a beam of freezing energy blasted out. The energy beam struck many heartless and froze them, but the large body's just moved up to the ice and smashed their comrades free.

Apathy was heavily outmatched but all he needed was a few more hearts to be stronger than them. As Apathy rode the heartless swarm, the shadows tried the shake him off and smashed into many icicle spires to do so. After a few hits Apathy jumped off the swarm into a group of soldiers and punched and kicked them aside.

Apathy then held his left arm as he smoothly dodged many attacks; he then moved he hand across his arm to his hand and formed an ice blade that was double the length of his arm. With his new ice blade, he began slashing at heartless and slowly began to recollect his hearts.

As he collected more hearts a puddle of darkness formed across the battlefield and a warrior clad in pitch black armour emerged and sprinted towards Apathy, weapon in tow. It was Maia clad in her newfound dark armour as she felt the power envelope her, the heartless had earlier rescued her and brought her into their dark realm to heal her. While in the dark realm, a group of Darkside's heartless emerged and hovered their massive hands over Maia's body, a powerful surge of dark energy poured into Maia as her armour donned around her body.

Back into the present, Maia swung her Wraith blade as a surge of black energy fired towards Apathy. The attack connected into his back as he writhed in pain with a blank expression across his face, although he barely showed emotion, Maia knew that inside he was furious.

Maia raised her hand and the heartless stopped attacking; they formed a massive circle around Maia and Apathy. Maia made her stance and readied her blade while Apathy did the same, their eyes interlocked as they waited for the other to make a move.

Suddenly Maia disappeared into a corridor of darkness and reappeared behind Apathy, he spun around and their blades connected. Apathy jumped back as Maia leapt forwards lunging her blade towards him, Apathy used his blade to deflect the attack and the palm of his other hand and pressed it against Maia's helmet. Maia's helmet began to freeze so she sliced off Apathy's arm up to the elbow with her blade, ooze spilled out and reformed into a new arm and Apathy formed a second Ice blade.

Now dual wielding two ice blades, Apathy attack Maia fiercely with his blades while she deflected each attack. This scenario of Apathy attacking her reminded her of herself attacking her master and she knew what she must do next. Maia riskily blocked one blade with her hand while deflecting the other with her blade, and with Apathy wide open she lunged her blade into his heart once more.

Apathy fell to his knees as more hearts burst from his body, "Wraith... phantom blade... is it fake?" he pondered in defeat. Maia removed her blade and was prepared to finish it, but as she swung her blade, Apathy dissolved into a corridor of darkness with a small grin on his face.

With the battle over and Apathy gone, the heartless left into puddles of darkness and the iced battlefield began to melt. Maia was soon wading in water as her armour disappeared and the sound of the crashing waterfall echoed through the air. Maia sighed in relief as she stared at her reflection in the water; suddenly she saw a shadow heartless in the refection and realised that a Shadow had stayed on her back and climb to her right shoulder. She smiled and giggled as she petted the shadow and soon he too left in darkness. Maia smiled as she thought that this particular heartless was the one that was helping her all day.

Later in the day as the sun was setting over the jungle and the creatures were soon to rest, Maia was at Archimedes treehouse enjoying more tea as she was finally introduced to Tarzan and Jane. Maia tried hard to not laugh as Tarzan asked Archimedes about strange snow storms in the jungle as she poured herself more tea and five more teaspoons of sugar.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

Chapter 6: Fight your fear or fear will fight you

After a few weeks of searching for answers towards Apathy, Insanity and the mysterious girl in a white hood, Maia eventually stumbled onto another world; the world she found herself upon was strange. From where she stood, Maia saw a lake of dark bubbling water with steam emerging from it and a light mist casted over it, she was in a cavern underground with strange floating balls of white fire burning and moving around the cavern.

Maia walked steadily across the damp floor towards a huge door looking entrance, curiosity enticed her to open the door, but no matter how hard she tried the door wouldn't budge an inch. Maia puffed up her cheeks in frustration as she had hoped she could at least find something interesting here. As she began to storm off in the other direction the door began to open and revealed a circular room with a huge hallway at the other side.

Maia slowly and carefully walked through the door and into the room. A cold chill ran through her spine as she heard a noise coming from something behind her, Maia quickly spun around and saw a young girl of about ten; she wore a black dress with white and red designs, she wore black gloves and boots, her hair was long and pitch black with a red bow tied onto the top of her head. The girl was crying softly as she held tightly onto a heartless doll and she nervously walked past Maia and walked towards the huge hallway. Maia felt sad and curious as to why a girl like that would be here, she then decided it would be best if she'd run after her and assist her anyway possible.

As Maia was about to go after the girl, the room suddenly shook and quaked as rocks fell from the ceiling. Maia briefly shielded herself from the rocks by using her reflect spell, as she activated the spell a huge black 3 headed dog emerged with black fur and short cropped ears. His heads were identical to each other, each sporting the same enormous mouths, pink tongues, and long, sharp teeth. All three heads also had glowing red eyes. Its legs seemed rather short for its size and each paw had three grey claws; He also has a thin tail and seems to be quite muscular.

The creature growled and stared at Maia as it moved in closer. The doors behind Maia quickly shut tightly as she got cornered with nowhere to go. The dog breathed heavily as its heads got extremely close to Maia. A figure appeared out of the hallway he had blue skin and blue flaming "hair". His eyes were completely yellow except for his black pupils. He has very sharp teeth and an unnatural black mouth. His face is quite long and thin, with his chin jutting out abruptly. His fingers are long, thin, and clawed. He wears what appears to be a dark grey shirt underneath a black toga, the latter of which seems to be held up by a small skull pin on his right shoulder. His feet don't seem to be visible, due to the length of his robes.

The blue skinned man pulled hard on a flaming chain that revealed itself around the dog's neck "down Cerberus" the man cried "come on, I thought you needed to use the toilet". Cerberus wouldn't budge and for some reason it began to pant. The blue skinned man looked puzzled as he scratched his flaming head; he quickly walked over towards Cerberus's head to see what he had found. The man looked on in shock and amazement as Maia was stroking Cerberus's three heads "who's a good boy, you are, and you are" she laughed as Cerberus licked her of her feet.

The blue skinned man stood and stared at her for a while and just asked "who in my hell are you", Maia laughed as she continued petting Cerberus "I'm Maia, I like your dog", "I'm Hades god of the underworld" he boldly claimed "and this pet is my guard dog Cerberus...ferocious isn't he" he sarcastically continued.

Maia smiled and soon began a conversation with Hades she described Apathy, Insanity and the white hooded girl; she then asked Hades if he has seen any of them. "And what's in it for me, I mean come on I don't give away free information" he replied casually, "erm, I don't have anything to offer I'm afraid" Maia replied. Hades smiled as he walked closer to Maia, he put his arm around her and continued his deal "I'll tell you what my dear, if you can fight and win the games and prove yourself worthy of fighting Hercules, then I can give you all the answers you seek", Maia looked at Hades and replied "okayyy, but I have two questions", Hades smiled and casually said "sure, sure fire away" "what are the games and who is Hercules" Maia puzzled.

Hades looked at her in shock but quickly let it slide "it doesn't matter who Hercules is, just know this; the games are a series of back breaking, blood gurgling and intoxicating battles to the death... or close to it ya know what I mean" Hades explained. "And I'll tell you what little lady, I will personally enter you into the games and I will boost one of your spells...I do believe you can use fire, right?" Maia nodded and raised her hand to Hades, Hades smiled and shook her hand in agreement "ya know what, this might actually be fun, I could use a bit of training" Maia smiled.

Puddles of darkness appeared around Maia as shadows emerged "oh, you guys want it too... is that ok with you Hades" Maia asked, Hades just stared in disbelief; he had not seen such strange behaviour around a person before from Heartless or even Cerberus for that matter. "Yeah...sure...they can enter" he said in puzzlement "yay" Maia cried "were going to have so much fun".

As Maia left in the direction of the coliseum as Hades waved goodbye in confusion. "There's something familiar about that girl" he said to Cerberus. Awhile later Hades entered his throne room, a room littered in gothic decoration and huge gaping holes in the wall that act as windows. Hades sat comfortably onto his throne with his head slumped onto his hand, he pondered over the deal with Maia "a strange bubbly girl with strong control over heartless and... is a dog lover".

A chill ran through Hades spine "whose there" he quickly asked, the strange young girl with the heartless doll appeared in front of the throne room door. The girl started to cry hard as she held tightly to her doll "oh great... a cry-baby" Hades sighed "wait? Are you my four o'clock" he asked. The girl nodded as she slowly walked towards Hades, her legs and arms shaking with fear, she tried to say something to Hades but her words muffled behind her doll as she hid her face from Hades, "what, come on girl speak up I haven't got all day" Hades fumed.

"I-I want (hic) to be in the games" she softly spoke, Hades barely heard her but understood what she wanted in disbelief "you, you want in the games... what are you like ten", the girl nodded. "you can't be serious, I mean come on I won't be able to make a decent deal out of this, you'll be dead in the first round and no one will even remember your name" Hades sarcastically commented. The girl slowly reached out her right hand towards Hades and grabbed his right hand.

Hades was suddenly terrified of this ten year old, his hands shaking, his face sweating and his face petrified. The girl wept as she announced her name "m-my name (hic) is Fear". Terrified, Hades said "you're in, j-just please go". Meanwhile Maia had reached the gates of Olympus Coliseum with a huge grin on her face, she pushed hard and she opened the huge doors. Inside was a courtyard with huge Bunsen's burning brightly and two enormous roman statues crossing swords over the entrance to the games. The courtyard was filled with combatants, one of which seemed very excited; he has light blond hair, blue eyes, and a stubble beard. He wears a black bandanna, black gloves, large gray boots, and a light blue vest over a black shirt, and a striped blue scarf hanging from a belt. He also wears a beige trench coat.

Maia walked through the courtyard and spotted a few combatants she knew; there were some Heartless that got here already before Maia, a few nobody's which got Maia nervous, and the white hooded girl. Before Maia could go and confront the mysterious girl, she felt a chill go through her spine as Fear entered the courtyard weeping uncontrollably.

Maia was about to go and comfort the girl until she saw another familiar face with his insanely smile. Insanity had arrived and was conversing with Fear, Maia quickly hid behind the tall man with the trench coat and tried to listen in to what Insanity had to say. The tall man noticed Maia and looked puzzled but soon shrugged it off and introduced himself "hey there, I'm snow", he turn around and patted Maia on her shoulder "and what's your name" he asked. Maia tried to see behind Snow but he was too big and so she didn't notice Insanity leaving. Giving up, she decided to introduce herself with reluctance "I'm Maia" she sighed "Maia huh, that's a pretty name" Snow smiled as Maia blushed "so what brings you to the games, I'm here to prove I'm a hero" he continued.

Maia not wanting to reveal that she's after the white hooded girl and now Insanity, just quickly replied that she too wanted to be a hero. "That's great, it looks like we're rivals" he smiled as he waved goodbye and walked over to the games, Maia quickly ran after him and followed him to the lobby.

Maia entered a large room were the contenders wait for their matches, at the other side of the room a small red furred, goat like man began his announcements "ladies and gentlemen, I'm Philoctetes but you may call me Phil. welcome to our annual event, the games, were you will fight to prove yourself worthy of the title hero" "sadly our main contender Hercules is away on family business but it seems we have plenty of contenders anyway, so after you received your number to identify when your match begins please make your way to the lobby and wait till it's your turn". Maia began to yawn as she thought Phil was quite a windbag "...and now I've got two words of encouragement, FIGHT!" he shouted. As Maia headed into the lobby she began to wonder what happened to the other word.

The first match was called out, a fight between three large body heartless and two dusks, accompanying them was a vaguely humanoid nobody that was covered in a purple and silver bodysuit. Its segmented arms are each lined by four blades resembling spikes on the Nobody logo. On its head is a small cap strapped by bandages with a long cloth hanging down in front of its face, which is mostly silver with a purple tip emblazoned with a small, white Nobody symbol. This creature was identified by the announcer Phil as Assassin.

The battle was quick and fierce and the Nobody's claimed victory and the heartless were vanquished, Maia felt sorrow for her fallen friends as a man with a black cloak, boots and gloves patted her on the shoulder. He had gold eyes, pointed ears, upturned eyebrows, and dark hair with several grey streaks that is tied into a long ponytail. His right eye is covered with a black eye patch and he also has a large jagged scar extending from his left cheek to just under his left eye.

"Hey there poppet, there no need to cry over the heartless, it's not like they can feel anything" he laughed. Maia felt furious as the man walked into the arena for his match. Phil announced the man's name as Xigbar and his opponent Fear.

Xigbar laughed and stared in disbelief at his opponent "what's this, do you expect me to fight a little poppet" he laughed. The bell rang as the battle started; Fear just sat there on the ground huddled in fear as Xigbar walked over. "Look poppet, just forfeit and I won't hurt you" he told her. Clutching onto her doll Fear looked at Xigbar and cried "I'm sorry (hic)", Xigbar looked in confusion at the girl and suddenly, he leapt back across the field as a humanoid Heartless emerged from Fear's back. It had sharp purple and blue horns that form the outline of a curled heart, small blue bat-like wings on their back, gold-tipped feathered wings on their forearms, their long tails appear scaly, and end in a sharp, crescent-shaped blade. Maia looked on from the lobby and knew this heartless's name "Invisible" she thought as she noted its horn was similar in appearance to her weapon.

Invisible tugged on its chains that were wrapped around his body and connected to Fear's soul. Fear, trembling stood up onto her feet and held tightly to her doll as Invisible lunged its fists at Xigbar. He tried to doge each attack but was hit a few times, Xigbar then readied his weapons ; two ranged weapons called Arrow guns, the top of each weapon bears a pattern similar to the Nobody symbol. They are purple, strangely shaped weapons that appear to be somewhat similar to crossbows.

Using his powers over space, Xigbar teleported quickly and randomly around the field as he fired bolts of energy from his crossbows. Invisible shielded Fear from each attack by using his own body. After emptying his rounds into Invisible, Xigbar frantically tried to reload his weapons before the heartless could attack. Invisible stood tall as its chains rattled, Fear looked at Xigbar and pointed at him. As soon as she pointed, Invisible lunged forward and grabbed Xigbar tightly so he couldn't use his powers to get away. Xigbar struggled as Invisible brought him to Fear who stood up and reached out her hand.

Maia watched on in confusion as Xigbar was released from Invisible's clutches. Xigbar screamed in terror at Fear as he quickly sprawled onto his feet and sprinted towards the exit. He ran straight past Maia who looked extremely confused. The match was declared in Fear's favour.

The third round began and ended quickly with Snow against several Heartless, the heartless didn't stand a chance against Snow's mighty fists as he proceeded to victory. It was finally Maia's turn and she was to be pitted against the white hooded girl and two Assassins.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

Chapter 7: A face revealed and a master's decision

Maia stood in the arena staring at her opponent, the white hooded girl and two Assassins. Phil began his announcements "let round four begin with Maia the bubbly girl of heart versus Maori, the white...hooded individual... or something... let the games begin". As soon as the round began, Maia summoned wraith and charged towards Maori. The Assassins quickly intervened with their bladed arms while Maori just stood there and watched. The clash of metal and blades ringed through the air as Maia dodged attacks and retaliated with her own, the nobody's used their bodies and strange movements to easily dodge each attack.

An Assassin lunged his bladed arm at Maia who held out her blade to shield herself; the other Assassin quickly manoeuvred his way behind Maia and attacked her with a fury of swipes. Her was stinging and bleeding, Maia fell to her knees in pain, but through her past endurances she manage to struggle back up and fight on. After parlaying several attacks, Maia decided to try out her boosted fire spell, so she raised her hand and cried out "fira", a ball of intensified heat burst out and collided with an unprepared Assassin who was engulfed in its heat.

With one Assassin left, Maia tried to use the same spell on it, but the Assassin was prepared and blocked it with its blades. Maori watched intently on the fight, still not moving an inch. Maia struggled to keep up with the continuing attacks as she was losing momentum, the Assassin then managed to catch Maia off guard and swiped her across the chest. Blood seeped through her clothing as she fell to her knees, Maia held back her tears as she wanted to appear strong to Maori instead of weak.

Maia, wanting very hard to win this fight so she can take Maori to her master, rose to her feet as darkness engulfed her body in pitch black armour. Her blade Wraith screamed in her mind as its power intensified and began to glow an eerie purple. With one swipe of her blade, a wave of dark energy collided with the Assassin and vaporised it, the force of the energy struck Maori as her hood flew back and revealed her face.

A couple of years ago, a younger Maia stood outside her Masters mansion as she said her teary farewells. Her master had prepared her for this day and now that it was here, she didn't want to go. She began to head off into the nearby forest as memories of her master telling her to leave were fresh in her mind.

A few hours ago...Maia stood tall and proud in her master's laboratory, the room was incredibly bright and housed several strange equipment and experiments. Her master walked up to her with his cane in hand, he sighed as he prepared his announcement "Maia, it is time for you to hunt down the heartless and release their hearts for my grand experiment. I shall soon venture from this place myself and establish a new base of operations for my final plan. Maia use Azure to contact me as I shall use it to update you on your mission, now head forth and make use of your power".

Maia wondered through the forest and eventually found an enormous wall; with no indication of a way in she blasted the wall with a fire spell and created on opening. On the other side Maia stared in wonder at twilight town. She began to explore and venture further into her new adventure; her excitement grew as she met new people and sights. Although she had previously been in twilight town before, she had never been allowed to go without her master. Maia's day of adventuring ended atop of the clock tower as she sat down and stared at the eternal sunset.

As Maia stared off into the marvellous view of twilight town memories suddenly flooded in her head, she held her head in pain as the memories were being suppressed and contained behind a mental block that took its shape of a door. Inside her mind she ventured to the door and tried to open it, it was locked, so she peeped through the keyhole and saw someone that looked similar to her in appearance but had a mark on her forehead. It was the mark of a nobody. A brief glimpse of a memory seeped its way through the keyhole and flooded Maia's mind, she had somehow known this girl before... she called Maia, sister...

Maia still clutching her head in pain fell off the clock tower and hurtled towards the ground. Her armour materialised and protected her as she hit the ground. She laid there breathing but unconscious as the armour disappeared.

Back to the present, Maia stared in disbelief at Maori whose hood was removed and revealed her face. It was like a mirror image of Maia but she had a nobody symbol on her forehead, it was the same girl from her locked memories.

Maia's armour removed itself as she fell to her knees in disbelief; she had not remembered the events from the clock tower for many years, and now that they came back she began to question herself "if she looks like me...a-and she's a nobody, am I a Heartless". Maia stared at her hands as she thought back to her first encounter with Maori in Deep jungle, it was strange at how the heartless defended and then joined her, maybe now it makes sense she thought.

Just to be sure, Maia reached for her chest to see if she has a beating heart. She was certain that heartless don't have hearts and if she was one, there wouldn't be a beat. Thump, thump, "a heartbeat" she cried in relief as Maori watched.

Maori stood perfectly still as she watched Maia slowly collected her fragile state. After a brief moment Maia stood tall as she readied her blade, she ran towards Maori crying out "WHO ARE YOU" as she swung her blade. Maori reached out her hand and caught the blade; blood seeped from her hand as electricity surged through the blade and connected with Maia.

Maia screeched in pain as the other combatants filled the seats around the arena to watch the spectacle unfold, Fear couldn't watch as the electrical sparks scared her, while snow just couldn't sit there and watch so he leapt out of seating area and ran into the arena. Snow punched Maori in the back who then released her grip on the blade.

Maia slumped to the ground in a heap as she smouldered from her burns. Maori jumped back away from Snow who then used his magic to heal Maia of her wounds. Snow helped Maia up from the ground "thank you Snow" she blushed "but why" Snow smiled and just boldly claimed "if I'm to be a hero, I'm going to need to protect my friends".

Snow and Maia readied themselves for their fight against Maori. Maia readied her blade which began to crackle with dark energy while Snow casted a strong reflect spell over them both. Maori put her hood back up and walked towards them, she flicked her left hand and a bolt of energy surged from her feet into the ground, the energy struck Maia and Snow off the ground and onto their backs. The spell protected them from major damage but it was clear to the both of them, if they did not end this match soon, they will not survive long.

Snow fired off a few Blizzard spells at Maori who then summoned a wall of fire to shield her from the attack; Maia surprised her by leaping over the wall and slashed a wave of energy towards her. Recoiling from the attack Maori quickly assessed the situation and formulated another plan.

Crackling dark energy enveloped Maori as her cloak gained a black flame design, Snow felt the power surge from her as the ground shook and cracked. "We need to finish this now" Snow called out to Maia, she nodded and readied her blade but as she prepared her weapon, its power resonated with Maia as she donned her armour and it surged and crackled with Wraith. The blade screamed for all to hear as its appearance changed drastically; the hilt had six metallic black wings, the blade was shaped with several curved edges which extended slightly long than before and a golden eye appeared in the centre of the hilt. The weapon was Wraith no more "my name is Phantom" its thoughts sent to Maia.

Maia was shocked and astounded at her new weapon but then her excitement overwhelmed her, Snow tried to stop her but Maia with her pitch black armour donned; charged straight for Maori. Maori fired a barrage of electricity and ice combined with her two hands straight towards her opponents, Snow braced for impact as Maia smoothly dodge each beam of energy with her newfound speed. Before Maori could react, Maia appeared behind her and slashed at her. Maori writhed in pain while Fear watched from the stands, Fear was overwhelmed by the power surge that she auto summoned Invisible to protect her. The power surge dissipated as Maia and Maori turn back to normal. Maori glared at Maia as she opened a door to darkness and accepted her defeat.

Maia was happy she won but the power took its toll on her as she collapsed, Snow managed to rush over and catch her. Cradled in his arms, Snow rushed Maia to the lobby to be healed.

A few hours later Maia woke up and found herself on a hard stone bench, she looked around the room and noticed Snow was there. She blushed uncontrollably as she tried to say something, but as she tried Phil rushed over and budged Snow aside "are you alright sweet cheeks, you're not still hurt are you" he asked in concern. Maia shook her head "d-did I win my match" she asked, Phil smiled and nodded "the matches have been postponed until tomorrow so we can prepare the field for the semi-finals". Maia looked at Phil and asked who she will fight against, Snow walked over and showed a thumb up "it's me and you doll" he laughed "and our fight shall determine who the better hero is".

Phil butt in and announced that "the other two matches are between Fear and the two dusks lead by the Assassin, my money's on Fear. She may be small and young but she has one heck of a guardian". Maia sighed then smiled as she fell back to sleep, Snow put his coat over her and tucked her in.

The next morning. Maia and snow sat down in the stands ready to watch the first match of the semi-finals, Fear vs Assassin. Fear slowly walked onto the arena as her legs trembled, the assassin also moved onto the field and was joined by his dusk's.

Phil began his announcements "ladies and gentlemen let me introduce out two contenders. On my left is the queen of fright, the t in tremble, me lady Fear. And her opponent shall be the terrible duo Dusks and the lone Assassin, let the games begin".

Quickly as soon as the match begun, the Assassin lunged straight towards Fear with incredible speed. Fear fell to her knees and curled herself into a ball and cried into her doll, her guardian Invisible arose from her back shackled in chains. The guardian used its body as a shield to protect fear as the Assassin struck. Without missing a beat, the guardian reacted and grabbed the Assassin by its blades and stretched it hard. The dusks tried to help but it was too late, Invisible ripped the Assassin in two, its body evaporated. The dusks leapt for Invisible but he just swung his huge muscular arm and slammed them into the ground... the match was over.

Invisible picked Fear off the ground and cradled her in his arms and left the arena. Maia watched as she felt sorry for the little girl for having to be put through such an ordeal. Phil called out the next two contenders, Maia and Snow left for the arena, each having a reason to win.


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

Chapter 8: A fight for heroes

The next round begins with Maia vs Snow, "just because we're friends doesn't mean that I'm going to hold back. After all I've seen the dark power you hold" Snow cried out, "that's ok with me, and how about a date if I win" Maia blushed. Snow laughed as he said "sorry Maia but I'm already taken", Maia looked slightly sadden as the match began.

The round began with Snow using a reflect spell "with this spell I can withstand your magic and that blade of yours". Maia made her stance as she summoned her blade "I call upon you Phantom" she cried out, but instead of Phantom her summoned blade was instead Wraith. Maia looked at Wraith in puzzlement as the blade spoke to her in her mind "your body can not yet handle the power of Phantom for long, for now I have taken the form of a weapon of your status. I shall take form of Phantom when the situation turns dire", Maia sighed as she donned her armour.

Snow rushed forward and threw a barrage of Blizzard spells at Maia. Maia knew what to do thanks to her experience fighting against Apathy; Maia fired a combination of fira and darkness at the spells, there powers collided in an explosion that shook the stadium. Snow emerged through the smoke as he pounced towards Maia, with barely much time to react Maia dodged Snow's fist as he punched the ground. Snow removed his hand from the ground as rubble broke off; Maia was impressed by his speed and strength.

Since Snow had clearly demonstrated his power, Maia decided it was time she did the same. In rapid succession Maia charged at Snow but before she hit, she opened and went through a portal of darkness, several times she did this and each time she struck Snow with her blade. Maia soon stopped after many blows only to find Snow had only a few scratches, "what's wrong Maia, what happened to all that power you demonstrated in your last fight" he cockily asked. Maia's power over darkness intensified along with her anger, she tried another barrage of attacks while escaping into darkness, this time though her attacks did more damage to Snow.

Snow fell to his knees as his body ached in pain, he was impressed but he defiantly called back "only heroes win, and in this story I'm the hero". Maia in a flash quickly appeared in front of Snow and grabbed him by the neck; her anger was manipulated by her darkness as her judgment got cloudy. Snow began to choke as he tried to remove Maia's hand, but her strength was unbelievable "M-Maia... stop (wheeze) this...please... (Cough) ...don't let it... control you", Maia looked into Snow's eyes and suddenly realised what she was doing. Maia let go of Snow and he dropped to the floor, Maia rushed over to Snow in tears. "A-are you okay (sob) I-I didn't mean for this to happen (hic)" cried Maia as she checked Snow.

Snow coughed and wheezed "yeah I-I'm alright, thanks" he assured her, he then raised his hand in the air "I give up" he called out. Maia looked at him in shock and asked why he did that "all though it takes a hero to win (cough), it takes a bigger hero to admit defeat" he smiled. Maia removed her armour and hugged Snow as she cried on his shoulders, inside she promised herself not to let her dark powers to overwhelm her ever again.

Awhile later Phil walked out onto the arena and declared the next fight "ladies and gentlemen, this is the fight you have all been waiting for. Our finalists Maia the seductive wielder of darkness versus Fear the girl that does what her name implies. Now I've got two words of encouragement, fight, live and dodge... now begin".

Maia made her stance on the arena as Fear sat on the floor holding her doll tightly. Maia in her heart couldn't bear to cause harm to her, so she decided to walk over to Fear and talk to her. Fear hid her head behind her doll as Maia came closer, with a smile and a soft voice she began to talk to Fear "hey there, you know we don't have to do this". Fear looked at Maia with tears falling from her eyes "b-but I have to, or else big brother will hurt me, even Invisible is scared of him" cried Fear as she pointed to the stadium. In a stadium seat was Insanity, he was crouched on the seat giggling madly with his evil smile; he stared at Maia and Fear with uncontrollable blood lust.

Insanity waved one hand in the air and a magic field enveloped the arena to prevent interference from others. Maia turned her attention back to Fear and she noticed Invisible had appeared and readied a punch which struck Maia hard, blood seeped from her mouth as she crashed along the ground. Maia rose from the rubble and looked straight at Invisible and Fear, she didn't have the heart to attack Fear but if she took out Invisible then she could win. She summoned Wraith and donned her armour, she fired a few fira spells but Invisible simply swatted them away. Next she tried to get in close and slash him a few times, but with each slash Invisible barely felt anything.

While stood right in front of Invisible, Maia tried to pierce her blade into him, but it just grabbed it with its bear hand. Still gripping the blade, Maia was lifted off the ground and was face to face with Invisible. His breath reeked as he breathed into her face; Maia retaliated by firing her spell into its face. Maia was let go as Invisible clenched its face in pain, she saw this as a possible weakness and fired more spells in its face.

Invisible grew in anger and gripped hard to his chains, from his grip he managed to remove a length of chain and swing it in the air. Maia dodged as Invisible lashed out with its chain, each collision to the ground left a deep gash, Maia wondered if her armour was enough to protect her from that attack. Realising that she required the use of dark powers, she carefully infused some into her spells, just enough to cause damage and not take control of her.

Each ball of purple flame slammed into Invisible and a few in his face. Seeing her plan to be working Maia tried to fire a stronger spell, but it backfired and exploded in her face. Badly hurt and her armour damaged Maia was on her knees as Invisible wrapped its chain around her. He pulled her in slowly as Fear cried and Insanity laughed madly, Snow watched in horror but couldn't do a thing until this match was over.

As Maia got dragged along the ground, she thought back to her battle with Maori and the spell she used on her. Maia remembered the pain of the electricity and thought if she could use it then she might have a chance.

A flicker of energy appeared in her hands as she concentrated, Invisible lifted her of the ground as her head dangled towards the floor. Suddenly a surge of electricity surged from Maia and connected with the chain, the chain conducted the electricity and surged it throughout Invisible's body. Invisible writhed in pain as the current flowed through his body, but what Maia did not count on was the fact that Fear and Invisible were connected by the chain. Fear screamed out in pain and agony as her small and frail body felt all of the electricity, in shock Maia stopped her attack but it was too late.

Invisible fell to the ground in defeat and Fear was unconscious. Insanity rose from his seat and laughed madly at the sight of Fear's defeat; "hehe haha haaa, you managed to beat her" he clapped madly. In a split second Insanity stood by Fear's body as his own started to ooze black blood, the blood covered Fear and seeped into her skin as her body began to grow. In a short minute, Insanity had fused with Fear and she had grown into a mature woman with a long flowing black dress and crazy jet black hair. Fear rose to her feet and raised her hand towards her guardian; she slowly absorbed him and gained a black and white mask over her face and chains wrapped around her body.

Maia now released from the chains jumped back across the field to gain ground, knowing that Insanity's personality has taken over, Maia decided it would be best if she went all out against her.

Maia's body was engulfed in darkness as it repaired her armour; her blade Wraith began its transformation into Phantom. After transformation Maia looked intently at Fear who began to laugh madly "hehe haha haaa haha, so much power, so much power so little time. Come my chains of fate, bind her, choke her and squeeze her life out of that armour" she laughed madly. Chains suddenly burst out of the ground and dangled in the air, they soon quickly charged for Maia who ran across the field dodging each one. The chains blocked her path to Fear by crossing over each other and formed a wall, from the wall a few chains burst out and struck Maia with great force.

Maia collected herself from the ground and swung her blade at the chains; a surge of energy smashed the chain wall and shattered it into pieces. Behind her mask, Fear giggled insanely as she ran towards Maia and grabbed her by the throat, her chains from her body wrapped around Maia and began to squeeze. Maia was suddenly terrified and she began to panic, then she realised that this was Fears special power, anything she touch would be overwhelmed by fear.

Fear slammed her into the ground with her chains repeatedly, her armour cracked and chunks of it broke off from the impact. After a few hits, Fear released her chains and flung Maia into the air, without missing a beat she slammed her chains into her body hard as she collided into the ground. Dust formed around the impact site as Fear retracted her chains; inside Fears mentality she was conversing with Insanity "s-she was trying to (hic) be kind to me, but (sob) why did she shock me" Fear asked, Insanity smiled and replied "it's because she hates you hehe haha. She wants to destroy you and take your hearts". Fear cried as Insanity laughed at her "but it's alright, with me here and the others back home you will be safe with us hehe haha haaa" he lied.

Something emerged from the crater, a body of darkness and twisted metal seeping out. Maia's anger and pain got the better of her as the darkness enveloped her heart. But instead of her being taken over, a miracle happened or to be more accurate Phantom.

Phantom took action and absorbed the excess darkness into its core and its power amplified many times, it also repaired Maia's fractured armour too. Maia sheathed Phantom onto her back and it began to transform into a pair of metallic rocket wings. Phantom used the excess darkness as fuel to power up her wings and she soared into the sky. Crackling energy was bursting out of her wings as she levelled out and stopped in midair.

Fear sent a barrage of chains after her but Maia just simple swatted them away with one hand as a small shield of darkness appeared on her hand. Maia then summoned a replica of Phantom made by pure darkness and nosedived towards Fear; Fear shielded herself with several layers of chains as Maia collided. The ensuring explosion knocked back the spectators of their seats, Snow looked on and hoped Maia was safe.

The smoke began to clear and the results of the explosion became visible, Maia stood proudly without her armour over an unconscious Fear. Fear's mask cracked and shattered revealing her forehead bleeding from the impact. Insanity slowly oozed his black blood out of Fear as she regressed back into a ten year old.

Insanity giggled and smiled at Maia and soon left through a corridor of darkness. Maia wasn't concerned with his departure but was more concerned about Fear. The match was declared in favour for Maia as Snow leapt onto the arena. Snow tried to heal Maia but she refused his help, she just softly spoke "help her please". Snow nodded and understood, as he healed Fear he thought to himself that Maia was a true hero for having concerns for her enemy.

Fear woke up to find herself in the lobby and resting her head on Maia's lap, Maia looked at her with great relief as she cried "thank god your alright, I thought we lost you". Fear thought for a moment and realised that she was not afraid of Maia anymore, she thought this was a strange warm feeling that she never felt before, Fear smiled at Maia and cried happily. Maia hugged her as Invisible appeared from Fear's back, but Invisible didn't look angry or concerned, he just stood there. Maia then past Fear over to her guardian who nodded to Maia as a way to thank her. Invisible held Fear over his shoulder and summoned at door to darkness, Fear smiled at Maia as she left with Invisible.

Snow who had been with them the whole time, patted Maia on the shoulder and said "ya know you would make a great mother one day or an older sister if you like". Maia thought for a moment and thought "ya know, you might be right".

Suddenly Maia remembered something "hey Snow, you said you had a fiancé. What's she like" she asked curiously. Snow smiled at her and simply said "oh Sarah huh, she's the reason I fight to be a hero. What's your reason for fighting" Maia thought for a moment and realised that up until now she had only fought for her master "ya know Snow, I think I fight for my family" she replied, but instead of her master in her mind who she saw as a father, it was another man, a man with a scar on his face "big brother" she thought as she left the lobby.

As Maia left the lobby, Phil walked in and placed a plaque on the wall. Snow walked over and read the plaque, he smiled "to the victor of the annual games, Maia Resin, the wielder of darkness with a heart of gold" it read.

Meanwhile... back at the underworld, Hades was still cowering in fear over the little girl. His mind raced with images of Hercules pummelling him into the ground, he had completely forgotten his deal with Maia and Fear.


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

"_Blast, just more failed attempts. Creating Nobody's at this rate is impossible, maybe it's my materials. I've destroyed their hearts and created a shell with a soul, in theory it should have formed a Nobody. Is it possible that Heartless and there Nobody form have a symbiotic relationship." D-Report 7_

Chapter 9: Return to Radiance

The sun began to wake over the sleepy garden of radiance; men, women and children slowly wake for a brand new day, but there was one girl already bright and early. The streets were paved in shadows casted off from the houses that loomed over, Maia sprinted through the shadows and brief glimpse of orange sunlight. Maia's smile was as bright as the sun as she ran through the streets; a middle aged man crept out of his house in his stripped pyjamas and knelt down to pick up a bottle of milk. As he knelt down, he heard someone call out to him from down the streets "HEEEEEYY, MISTER WATTSON. GOOD MORNING", it was Maia calling out to him as she ran under an archway. Maia soon quickly ran past Mr Wattson as they both waved at each other, Wattson grin turned into a huge smile as he waved "aaah Maia, good morning my dear", he continued to wave until she left his sight. Mr Wattson then turned to his house with his bottle of milk and cried out to the misses "heeey Sally, guess whose back?" he chuckled as he closed the door.

Maia couldn't contain her excitement as she giggled to herself; it had been quite a while since she had visited her family...her friends. Maia was filled with joy as she ran to the railings that borderline the cliff that loomed over a part of town, her pace came to a quick halt as she braced herself against the cold railings. The view was magnificent, she could see the entire town from there, Maia smiled as the wind blew through her hair and she watched as the sun's rays shined over the sleepy town. A couple of leaves were dancing in the wind as Maia pointed towards the town "I bet big brother is there" she said with exhilaration, the trees and there branches swayed to and fro as Maia rushed off again to find a way into town.

Maia soon came across a set of stairs that curved along the cliff edge into town, in a hurry she decided to mount the railings and slide her way down. Maia laughed as she bumped over segments of the railings as she went down, a young couple for an early stroll up the cliff soon saw Maia in the distance. The couple watched Maia as she slid passed them and said "good morning" as she went by, the couple looked at each other and the young woman smiled and laughed "it's good to see Maia again", the young man smiled and nodded in agreement.

Maia soon reached the bottom of the stairs and jumped off at the last second, Maia landed on her feet with a pose but soon rubbed her behind to try and remove the numb feeling she got from the railings. The bare streets soon began to get busy as children ran out of their homes in excitement as their mothers followed behind; they began to talk in delight with other mothers, talking about their children and their day to day activities. The husbands soon left the house as well and waved their wives goodbye as they headed off to work.

Maia envied them; she never got the family she wanted she thought. But such thoughts quickly went by since her new family was with her friends, and with that she walked off through the streets of mothers and children passing by. The street got brighter as the sun rose higher in the sky and the trees that lined in the middle soon barely waved as the wind died down. The brown and orange leaves that coated the trees broke off and danced around Maia as she walked under the branches.

Maia exited the street and into a well-known place to her heart, a fountain stood in the centre as houses circled around the street and the cafe Mrs Potts came into view. Maia sighed with a smile as she watched Mrs Potts open and set up her cafe, Maia had many memories there and most of them included sweet tantalizing delights.

Maia wished she could visit but she had to meet her family first. As the streets of mothers and husbands soon died down and only a handful of people remained, Maia rushed off in the direction of her heart. She ran passed many citizens along the way as she said a good morning to each of them as she went by, the happy people waved back as she went by. Maia soon slowed her pace and came to a halt, she bent over and rested her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath "not far to go now" she thought,

After a few minutes of running, Maia soon saw a large building that quickly came into view; the house was decorated with baskets of flowers that hanged near the wooden door and the large tall windows on both floors that had small railings at the bottom. Maia laughed as she cried out "big brother, big brother" as she burst through the wooden door; Maia opened her arms wide as she grabbed the first person she saw. It was a young man with a light shade of brown short hair with bangs that sweep to the left side of his face, he had black gloves, black, zipper-lined shoes, a silver necklace, a white undershirt with a short black jacket and white fur collar and brown belts on his left forearm and three buckles on his right thigh. The young man was also clearly taller than Maia as her feet dangled in the air as she held on tightly with her arms around his shoulders and hands on his chest. Maia giggled and laughed as she cried out "big brother Leon".

Leon reacted in shock when Maia had pounced on her and stuttered a few words in confusing "M-Maia I-is that you", Maia laughed and confirmed his suspicions but her sight soon gazed upon the light pink haired woman opposite Leon. Maia sniggered as she moved closer to Leon's ear with a sly face "is that your girlfriend" she sniggered, Leon's face blushed red and he tried quickly to bring back his calm composure while the pink girl opposite him broke a smile, "N-No, t-this is Lightning... (Huff) a friend of mine" he tried to convince her.

Maia dropped off Leon's shoulders and manoeuvred around him and greeted herself to Lightning. She was a young woman with long, light pink hair and pale aqua-coloured eyes. A white jacket like uniform with brown belts fastened around it and light brown shorts, she had navy blue fingerless gloves, black boots and a green palindrome on her left shoulder.

After greeting herself to Lightning, Leo grabbed Maia by her right shoulder and asked with concern "Maia, where have you been. It's been over a month since any of us had last seen you. We have been so worried for you". Maia walked a few steps away from Leon and Lightning and spun around with her hands behind her back and simply replied in a casual way "oh you know how it is, my master gave me a call and wanted me to be somewhere... and now I'm here".

Leon sighed as he placed his hand on his head, Maia just smiled all innocently; she knew she couldn't tell him the truth, how could she explain to him that she gained an affinity to dark powers and has befriended the heartless. She especially couldn't tell him about the heartless she thought, not after what they did to Radiant Garden in the past. Maia's smile soon disappeared as her thoughts were on the heartless, why did she befriend them, was it because they saved her or was it more?

As Maia fell into deep thought, a sudden movement and weight appeared in her hands behind her back. Maia's train of thought broke as the thing wriggled more in her hands; she slowly looked over her shoulder and tried to get a look and not to look suspicious. Maia twitched as a shiver shook through her body, she turned to Leon and Lightning with a fake smile and laugh. The thing in her hands was a Shadow heartless, she must of summoned it when she thought deeply about them.

The heartless wriggled as she tried to conceal it away from the others; Leon soon grew suspicious of her behaviour and slowly moved towards Maia "what have you got in your hands Maia?" he asked, "n-nothing" Maia quickly replied as she slowly walked backwards into a wall. Leon looked at Maia with curiosity as he reached for her arm, as he grabbed her arm Maia cringed as he pulled.

Maia slowly opened her eyes and saw Leon staring at her hands...there was nothing there! Maia was relieved but quickly became concerned to where Shadow went. "Erm, the reason why I didn't want y-you to see my hands w-was...was..." she quickly replied while looking behind Leon to find Shadow "...my hands were dirty... yeah and so's my face, I haven't had a decent shower in ages" she lied.

Leon just smiled as he shook his head in relief, "for a second there you had me worried" he sighed, as Leon spoke to Maia her attention was beginning to fixate near Lightning. Behind Lightning were a cluttered desk and a mobile blackboard, and on the blackboard was Shadow.

Maia cringed again as she watched Shadow jump on the desk and move closer to Lightning but suddenly a loud crash rand through the air. A young girl had burst through the front window and landed on her feet as she shattered glass rained on the floor. She has short, black hair, her eyes were violet and she wore a black headband with white lining. She wears an unzipped, dark grey combat vest with a black strap dangling from the right pocket overtop a navy blue tank top with white floral designs. She wears a white wristband on her right wrist and a grey, fingerless glove on her left arm. Her shorts are slightly darker and have another black strap dangling from the left side.

"Yuffie!" cried out Leon as Lightning and Maia braced from shock. Yuffie readied her 4-Point Shuriken weapon as she cried out to Lightning "watch out, it's a heartless". Lightning and Leon brought out there respected weapons and pointed them at Shadow who quickly leapt off the table.

Yuffie, who was closer to the creature, tried to hit it with her shuriken but missed and the heartless ran out the front door. Lightning, Yuffie and Leon gave chase while Maia stood perfectly still and slapped her face with the palm of her hand "I knew that heartless looked familiar" she silently spoke "it was the same one from deep jungle".

Maia gave chase after the other three but as soon as she left the front door, she couldn't see where the others went. Maia sulked as she thought it was hopeless now, that was until she felt something deep inside her, calling her to head towards the Bailey. Trusting on her instincts with a hand placed over her heart she ran in the direction of the Bailey and hoped she'd make it in time.

To save time, Maia ran down a narrow alley and jumped from wall to wall until she reached the roof tops. Standing tall on the slanted roofs, Maia looked for the direction of the Bailey. As soon as she got her Barings, she ran across the roofs of houses.

Her shoes barely gripping on the tiles as she leapt from one house to another, her speed steadily increased as she made a large jump over the street. Maia soon noticed her friends in hot pursuit of the heartless down below her in the street; Yuffie kept missing as she threw her shuriken and lightning grazed the pavement with her bullets fired from her crimson gunblade, Leon just held his massive gun like sword over his shoulder as he ran.

After a long chase around town, Leon and the others lost the heartless at the Bailey. Maia soon caught up to them and was relieved to find them disappointed, she knew from that expression they didn't catch Shadow. Maia walked along the Bailey and her eyes caught glimpses of the valley through the small openings in the wall, she recognised the great maw in the distance; it was the site of the battle of the 1000 heartless. Maia remembered Leon had once told her that a lone boy with a Keyblade had faced the heartless in battle and was the main reason they had won, it was that story that convinced Maia to be stronger.

Leon turned to the others and Maia and suggested that they should head back. As Maia followed behind, her sense towards darkness tingled. Maia turned her head slightly and looked at a gap in the wall, hanging outside of the gap was Shadow; Maia smiled as Shadow disappeared into darkness.

After a long walk, the group returned to their home; the restoration committee centre. The sun hanged high in the sky and the breeze felt cool and refreshing. Maia was chilling out with Leon and Yuffie, talking about the progress over the last month since her sudden disappearance "...and that' all the progress we've made so far. To summarise, all that's left is the restoration of Ansems castle, any questions" asked Leon.

Maia was too busy to pay any attention to what Leon had to say, she was busy eating her sea salt ice-cream that she bought along the way here. Leon just sighed and shook his head "Maia" he groaned, Maia soon noticed that Lightning was missing and leapt off the wooden stool she was sitting on and crept closer to Leon, she nudged her shoulder against his arm while playfully asking "hey Leon" "what" he groaned "I noticed your girlfriend isn't here, did you two have a falling out" she sniggered. Yuffie laughed at the gesture while Leon look half as amused, Maia took a bite of her ice-cream and laughed as she ran out the door. Leon sighed as he asked "what am I going to do with her, it's only been a few hours and she's already pestering me", Yuffie smiled as she replied back "you know it's a good thing that she's grown attached to you, (chuckle) she even calls you big brother". Leon sighed some more and crossed his arms, then something accord to him "oh Yuffie" "hmm" she replied "its Maia's birthday next week, do you think you can keep her here till then. I don't want here running off for a while" he asked, Yuffie smiled at Leon and asked curiously "are you going to do anything special", Leon didn't reply; he just smiled.

After a long day of visiting the town and the occasional sweet store, the sun was creeping towards the horizon as Maia was running through the streets and shadows from the leaves on the trees glittered over the pavement. Maia eventually stopped in front of a small house and she gazed upon it, her eyes twinkled as she chewed on the ice-cream stick. Maia slowly walked up to the door, her shadow casted upon the door as she grabbed the door knob and opened it.

The door creaked as it opened; the light shinned through the open door brightened up a dark and dreary room. The room was dusty with a single wooden table in the centre, a fireplace in the back, a bookshelf with piles of books and notes in front of it; a staircase to her left and to her right was a stove oven. It wasn't much but it was home... her home.

Maia walked in and closed the door behind her, the room turned dark as she removed her boots and put them in the corner, the only light was coming through the two windows at the back on each side of the fireplace. Maia looked around the room and noticed several candles that she'd placed previously to light her house, she raised her hand and casted fira at each candle. The small flames burned and illuminated the room, flecks of dust singed as they touched the flames as Maia headed towards her fireplace. In front of a traditional brick fireplace, Maia knelt down and picked up some wood from the small pile next to it and threw them into place. With a flick of her spell, she lit the fire and it burned brightly; the heat glowed onto Maia as the wood crackled and snapped; Maia looked beautiful in the glow of the fire.


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: **any characters owned by Square Enix are not my own, only characters owned by me are my OC's. please ask for permission to use any of my OC's.

Chapter 10: Commit to memory

Maia headed upstairs as the wooden steps creaked under each foot, the stairs led to an empty hallway with three doors; the door to the left was Maia's bedroom, to the right was her bathroom and straight on at the end of the hallway was the door that led to her balcony.

Maia stood in her room in front of her single bed with a single window that shined the sun's twilight rays over it, her freshly lit candles glowed as the wax melted down like a tear. The sound of running water pouring into her bath tub echoed through her house as Maia unzipped the back of her dress, after taking her arms out of each sleeve and removed her palindrome, the dress slumped to the floor in a heap. Maia walked her dress and black stockings as her bare feet touched the cold wooden floor; her chest bulged as she breathed, and out. The glow of the candles caressed Maia's smooth bare skin as she walked with grace to the bath tub.

The room steamed as Maia turned off the tap. Maia lifted her smooth leg and touched the water with her toe, it was warm and soothing as the rest of the foot inched its way in. She slowly sat down in the bath with a soft "ahhhh" as the water reached over her chest and gently touched her chin. Her violet hair flowed in the water and the only sound in the room was Maia humming a soft tune and the sound of water dripping into the tub. Maia's mind drifted off while soaking in the tub, she began to reminisce about her old life and how strange it was compared to her current one.

Years ago when Maia was with her master, she would always wake up at the stroke of dawn and find herself lying in a strange white pod. The pod had a glass seal that kept her inside until morning, Maia would wait until her master would open her pod, sometimes for hours but at least the bedding was comfortable. When she was finally released she would always great her master with a smile, but he would just stare at her with a blank expression. Maia would then start the day with a specialised shower; she would stand in a cubicle as a computerised system washed and dried her clean. Her clothes were already laid out for her on a single table in her room and after getting dressed it was her routine training exercises.

Maia would not get any food for hours as her master had declared "if you can fight on an empty stomach, then you can fight through our enemy's". Failure was not an option with her master, even as a young child she had to push her limits to please his expectations; there were many times he used his cane to beat her if she had failed. There were even times he'd fight her personally and beat her mercilessly "if you cannot beat me, then why am I wasting my time with you" he would angrily lash out. It would have to have been around the evening when she'd finally get food. A small meal composed of nutritional goodness; Maia never liked the food but dared not complain.

Each and every year the routine continued and even on her birthdays she did not get any rest, but Maia liked her birthdays for one reason; her master would let her call him father with no repercussions and he would allow one gift of her choice. Her gift was always something of the sweet variety; she could not remember why she loved sweets so much.

It was not until around her sixteenth birthday that she left her old home and headed out for a new one... but that ended with her falling off the clock tower in Twilight town. Maia woke up a few days later in a strange place and a soft bed; nothing like her old one, this one had springs and no seal. A young man that she would later recognise as Leon entered the room with Yuffie and he sat down beside her. He explained to her that he found her near the Bailey unconscious, Maia listened to his words; they felt soft, warm and caring; such strange and foreign feelings that warmed her heart.

It took days before she recuperated and got used to her new life style; she would wake up in her strange bed but there was no seal, no need for her to wait to get out, her mornings consisted of being looked after by Leon Yuffie and Aerith; a young sweet girl with a loose, lilac belt around her waist with black string tied into a bow wears a pink dress with magenta lining and buttons going down the front, all of which are buttoned except for the last two. She has a black string tied in the same fashion as the one on her belt around her neck like a necklace. Her eyes are green and her hair is brown. Aerith's hair is long and styled into a braid down her back, with curls on either side of her face.

Maia's afternoon dinner was spent with her new found family as she would eat into a large meal, and the food was delicious. In the evenings, Aerith would read to her stories; children's books were her favourite. And finally at night she would crawl into bed all snuggled up and cosy, her life had finally got better...for a while that is.

Azure the blue jay would visit Maia on many occasions and would update her of her master's wishes. Late at night she would sneak off into the void between worlds and do recon on various worlds, her master had much work for her and she had so little time. On other missions, Maia would leave her friend's home and head towards Mrs Potts cafe and wait for Azure's arrival; sometimes she would not return for a few days and Leon would always worry. It was because of his caring manner that Maia would call him big brother...

Maia suddenly woke and quickly she emerged from under her bath water, Maia had fallen asleep and drifted under water without realising. As Maia emerged from under water, the specks of water shimmered as they splashed out and Maia caught a deep breath. Maia stared at her reflection in the water as her face dripped and she sighed. Maia's hand reached for the centre of her chest, there was a burn mark, at least the size of her palm it was. She would always find this mark strange as she could not remember how she'd got it and it occasionally felt like it was burning.

Maia slumped herself back into the bath and raised her soft smooth leg out of the water, the candle light glowed and glistened against the layer of moisture as she began to think it was about time she got out.

After drying off and getting dressed in her red and pink nightgown, Maia got into her bed with her hand on her pillow and her head resting on it, by using her free hand she waved with a simple gesture and the candles went out one by one. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, Maia realised she couldn't get to sleep and got out of bed again. She walked out into the hallway and through the door to the balcony.

Maia rested on the railings covered in foliage, the view was gorgeous; a few lights from houses glowed throughout the streets and the stars were all in display with the crescent moon in full view. A couple of small glowing bugs flew close by as they dance in the gentle breeze, Maia assumed they were fireflies but couldn't be sure; she had rarely seen fireflies before.

Maia sighed as she needed to stretch her legs; she leapt over the railing into the street below and walked off into the moons direction. After a while of walking through the streets, Maia was still in her nightgown as she saw more fireflies, out of boredom and a slight curiosity she followed the flies. She had eventually followed the flies into a huge luscious garden at the edge of town; the garden was full of plants, flowers and trees, and there were fireflies of plenty dancing out the plants and trees. The sight was amazing, light many stars dancing in front of her. Maia noticed that there was another girl in the garden surrounded by fireflies, it was Aerith.

Aerith soon noticed Maia and smiled, her smile called Maia over and Aerith asked nicely "what's wrong dear, why aren't you in bed already" Maia didn't reply but just yawned as she sat down onto a bench. Aerith chuckled as she admired the fireflies "beautiful aren't they (giggle) Leon told me you came home today. But he didn't tell me why you left, can you tell me...I'll keep it a secret". Maia's lips barely moved as her eyes drifted into sleep and she slumped onto the bench and fell asleep. "So this is where you went Aerith" Leon said as he walked into the garden, "shhhhh" replied Aerith as she pointed towards a sleeping Maia, Leon sighed and simply said "she's a handful this one". Leon walked over to the bench and looked at Maia; he saw her sleeping like a child; tiny breaths from rosy cheeks while curled up into a ball and her hand resting her head. He knelt down and picked up Maia carefully and tried not to wake her, he then turned to Aerith who smiled at Leon "you really are a big brother to her" she whispered, Leon broke a small smile and went off to take Maia home; her head nestled in his shoulder.

As Leon walked closer to her home, he noticed Maia was muttering in her sleep. Leon suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at Maia...there was something about the heartless she said that he couldn't quite pick up on. He shrugged it off and continued walking; he thought it was simply a nightmare.

Two days have passed since Maia returned to Radiant Garden and it has been quite a while since she had reported back to her master, but Maia didn't care; she was having the time of her life. Yesterday Maia had attempted to enter the great Ansems castle but... things didn't go as planned, so today Maia thought she could try a different tactic.

Maia stood in front of the gates leading to the intimidating castle owned by the now missing Ansem. The sun stood tall in the sky as its rays shined down onto the gates, they were tall and the bars were thick. She could just simple open the gates and walk through but she might get seen by the castle guards; Dilan and Aeleus. Maia chose option two; her secret entrance, the one she found a couple of months back. Maia giggled to herself after thinking about how many times she had tried to enter the castle unnoticed, about fifty three times at last count.

Maia headed off to her secret entrance; it was down an old deserted alleyway by the castle walls and on the castle wall was a small opening where the bricks were removed. Maia knelt down to the ground and crawled through the tight opening, the ground was slightly moist as she pushed her way through a bush on the other side; the twigs and branches tugged on her clothes as she emerged.

Maia quietly and sneekishly headed towards the castle doors. She pressed her back against the wall of the castle and peered around the corner carefully, the castle doors were in view but so were the guards. Maia looked away and thought to herself "how am I going to get past those two?" Maia then looked at the ground and noticed a few pebbles and sniggered to herself as she picked up a few.

Aeleus and Dilan looked bored as they guarded the door; Dilan was a tall, broad-shouldered man that wears a dark slate grey guard uniform which is adorned with a curled heart symbol, and white gloves. The front of his jacket sports two rows of gold buttons, silver highlights, and a red and white heart like the one on his gloves. He also wears a belt and knee-high boots, both of which are black. Dilan's hair is black and worn in long dreadlocks. He keeps most of his dreads tied into a low ponytail, but one dangles over the right side of his face. He also has thick sideburns, thick eyebrows, and violet eyes. Aeleus has very angular and strong features, with a square chin, straight nose, and sharp cheekbones. He has blue eyes and small eyebrows. His hair is auburn and slicked back into rather odd, messy spikes.

The two guards then noticed a pebble roll towards then, Aeleus watched it as it hit his left foot while Dilan wasn't fazed and kept looking forward. Another pebble appeared but this time it was aimed at Dilan's face, he didn't even flinch as he simple swatted the pebble away. Dilan sighed as he spoke to Aeleus "it looks like that girl is back" "should we get her?" asked Aeleus "no, let her be. She hasn't gotten past us before and she never will".

Maia peered around the corner again and noticed the guards haven't even budged, she got annoyed and pouted. As Maia turned away to think of another plan she didn't notice her heartless friend Shadow walk past her feet and towards the guards.

As Maia looked up at the sky thinking, she suddenly heard shouting "A HEARTLESS" "GET IT" cried the guards as they chased after shadow. The guards ran straight past Maia who looked very confused as she saw them chase shadow, as the guards left her sight Maia used this opportunity to sneak in. The doors creaked as Maia opened the huge doors; there was a strange familiar smell in the air. The corridor was lit brightly by the overhead lights and the walls were a light brown mixed with cream. The floor was reflecting Maia's image as it was smooth as it was shiny, even with her lightest steps the corridor echoed with every foot.

The corridor was long and as Maia traversed it, she pondered as to where the doors were. After several corners and endless corridors, Maia hadn't seen one door. She then suspected that maybe the walls were hiding a secret and her curiosity begged her to check. As Maia reached for the wall and her fingers almost reaching it, a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and Maia was suddenly dragged along her feet; it was Dilan "come on you trouble maker, you won't find anything here" he sternly told here.

Maia was soon flung out the door, while in flight; Maia turned her head and looked at Dilan she then stuck out her tongue and closed her eyes. Maia landed on her behind and bounced onto her stomach, Dilan just smirked as he brushed his hands and then closed the door behind him as he took his post. Maia lay on the floor with her behind in the air and her legs bent over to her back, she smiled as she thought "that makes fifty four times...and I succeeded in getting in. Next time I must find a door".

Maia left the castle grounds by the front gate, as the gate closed behind her she brushed the dirt off her clothes. A young tall and man walked over to Maia and asked if she was okay, Maia brushed of some more dirt off her knees and then turned and looked at the man. He wore a black cloak, gloves and boots. He had small eyebrows and thick, shoulder-length, bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes and his eyes were a bright emerald. Maia blushed at him as she thought he was quite handsome, the young man reached for a hand shake as he introduced himself "hey there I'm Lea, got it memorized", Maia giggled as she shook his hand "I'm Maia" she smiled "got it memorized" she said with a cheeky grin. Lea started to laugh and Maia soon joined in; while they were laughing, Aeleus opened the gates and walked through. He noticed Lea laughing with the trouble maker and said "hey Axel, be careful of that girl. She quite a handful" he warned, Lea quickly replied with haste "it's Lea now got it memorised" he said while shaking his arms, Aeleus just laughed; as he walked off he cried back "you will always be Axel to me ha ha ha".

Lea turned to a sniggering Maia "what?" he asked, Maia held her hands together behind her back and swayed as she replied "oh nothing... Axel (giggle)". Lea looked at Maia speechless and then he sighed "its Lea okay". Lea then noticed something about Maia, he sensed a faint glimmer of darkness in her; faint and yet very strong. Lea looked at her in concern but quickly turned it into a fake smile "hey Maia, word is you have a Keyblade" he said Maia looked at him with a confused look "huh? How did you know?" Lea chuckled as he revealed that he knew who she was before hand and that he heard rumours about her using a Keyblade and armour to fly off, all this happened at least about a month ago he revealed. "So how about it. Your Keyblade against mine" he proposed as he summoned his blade; the guard of his Keyblade resembles Chakrams and it had a straight hilt rather than a cross-shaped handle. The blade and teeth appear as a translucent streak of yellow-orange flame, the teeth open like a hook rather than a closed loop.

Maia smiled and jumped a bit further back and made her stance while summoning wraith. Lea pointed his blade at Maia "ready when you are" he called out, Maia nodded and suddenly charged. The sounds of metal clashing rang through the air as their blade collided; Maia tried various techniques she learned through her travels but Lea easily dodged and retaliated with each one. Maia's speed was the only thing keeping Lea on his toes as she struck in a fury of strikes; each hit blocked by Lea. Lea jumped back to gain distance but lost his balance, Maia saw the opportunity and then tried strike raid and threw her spinning blade straight at him, Lea quickly braced for impact and used his Key blade as a shield. Maia's blade was repelled by Lea's and without a second wasted he charged at an open Maia, his blade lunged forward inching closer to Maia's chest... but he stopped as Maia's blade struck the ground a fair distance away, the match was over.

Maia's heart raced with Lea's as they stood perfectly still, Lea suddenly laughed as he relaxed his body "that was a close one, you nearly had me for a second there" he commented, Maia slumped on her behind as she tried to catch her breath; it had been awhile since she had clashed blades with another Keyblade "I was pretty quick wasn't I (huff) but you were better", they both then laughed together as Lea rested on the ground.

An hour later, Maia and Lea were at Mrs Pott's Cafe, Lea looked at Maia in amazement; her side of the table had small cakes, ice cream and a few bowls of sweets. Mrs Potts the sweet old lady walked to Maia's side and poured her more tea and five sugars "you err, like sugar don't you?" Lea said in a puzzle, Maia just smiled and offered his a sea salt ice cream, as soon as his eyes met the seas salt ice cream, he remembered a promise he had made to his friends. After tea and ice cream, Maia paid the enormous bill as Lea began to walk off, "hey Axel" she cried out "(sigh) come on I told you its Lea" he said in exhaustion "were friends now right. Got it memorised" she giggled; Lea turned around and just smiled at her remark.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: A reason to fight

It has been four days since Maia's arrival and she showed no signs' of returning to her mission; she was having more fun spending time with Leon and the others. She was also having fun annoying the castle guards who have thrown just thrown her out of the castle for the fifty fifth time; as Maia left the castle grounds with a huge grin on her face and dirt on her clothes she decided since it had just turned noon she would visit Mrs Potts for a nice cup of tea, and maybe a sea salt ice cream.

The sun blazed with heat as Maia gulped down her last ounce of tea; she licked her lips and savoured the sweet taste. Maia raised her hand to indicate to Mrs Potts that she's ready for her ice cream; while she waited she glanced towards the fountain in the middle of the street and saw a middle aged man with an afro and a brown completion, he wore a long, olive coat over khaki trousers, a white button-down shirt, and black buckled engineer boots, he keeps his two pistols in holsters strapped to his thighs. His son who was with him wore a set of dusky pink dungarees over a light blue and green zipped jacket and trousers, with a white polo-neck underneath. His dungarees have several stitching and pocket details, as well as four blue and gold appliqués, with various symbols; he also had an afro like his dad. The two looked happy together as the father picked up his son and carried him over towards Mrs Potts, their clothes shimmered from the water vapours on their clothes.

The two sat themselves at the table opposite Maia as she had just received her ice cream, Maia giggled as the young boy pointed towards her ice cream; indicating to his father that he wanted the same. Maia took a bite out of her ice cream just as the father leant across his table and looked kindly at Maia "excuse me miss, what ice cream is that. (Chuckle) my son Dajh would like one as well". Maia smiled at Dajh and told him softly "its sea salt ice cream, it's really salty but tastes incredibly sweet", Dajh grew in excitement "can I have one dad" he asked polity "please". Maia kindly indicated to Mrs Potts for another two ice creams and she paid for them both. The father thanked her for her kindness as he handed the other ice cream to Dajh "thank you kind miss, my names Sazh, my I ask for your name?" Maia introduced herself to the two with a smile.

After tea and ice cream, Maia accompanied Dajh and Sazh to the local park. The park was a wonder to behold as its beauty was magnificent. Swings and sand pits had rows of flowers neatly potted and placed beside them, there was a jungle gym that Dajh excitedly ran towards and begun his climb. Maia and Sazh sat down on a nearby bench and watched Dajh play to his heart's content while the sun was still visible in the sky.

As the sun crept over the houses and casted there long shadows over the playground, Sazh was conversing with Maia and suddenly realised the time "oh, look at the time. Dajh its time to go" he called out "oh, can't we stay a bit longer" he pleaded "please". Maia looked at Sazh and smiled "I could play with him for a bit" she suggested, Sazh nodded and replied "I think he'll like that". Maia ran over to the swings and called out to Dajh "come on over here, I'll push you", Dajh's eyes lit up in excitement as he ran towards the swing with a huge grin. As he comfortably sat down he turned his head towards Maia and happily said "thank you Miss Maia", Maia smiled as she gently pushed Dajh.

Sazh happily watched from afar as Maia and Dajh were having fun, watching Maia reminded him of his late wife and he thought Dajh saw it in her as well. As it was getting late Sazh got up from the bench and shuddered; it was getting cold and he and his son had a fair distance to walk home. He gradually walked over as Dajh was swinging higher and higher and he was enjoying it. Maia laughed as she pushed but suddenly as she retrieved the seat again… there was someone in the seat, but it wasn't Dajh. Sazh screamed in horror as he stared at the seat, there was a Heartless occupying it "NOOO, YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM, HE'S ALL I GOT LEFT" he shouted. Maia held the seat in shock as she recognised the heartless, it was shadow; her personal heartless.

Shadow plumped himself into the seat and grabbed the chains, he wanted Maia to push. Sazh fell to his knees and cried "nooo, no, no, you can't, you can't" he sobbed; he reached for his gun strapped to his leg and drew it quickly, aiming at shadow. "DAM YOU HEARTLESS" he cried out, the ringing sound of gunfire filled the air as Sazh fired his weapon. Blood dripped to the ground in small specks, Sazh looked on in shock as he stared at Maia clutching he belly. Blood seeped out of her hands as she collapsed onto her behind; her head hit the swing causing shadow to hold on tight as the swing shook. Her face was turning pale and her blood soaked her clothes, "but…why" Sazh uttered, Maia gazed her weary eyes at shadow who had jumped to her side and reach her hand for his face. As she stroked its cheek with her bloody hands she replied back to Sazh with tears "because… he's my friend".

Sazh was confused and infuriated as he shouted back "YOUR FRIENDS WITH THE HEARTLESS, THEY, THEY TOOK MY WIFE, AND NOW THEY TOOK DAJH". Maia didn't reply as her heart weakened but as she slowly closed her eyes; shadow summoned a green requiem, a floating heartless shaped like a bell with an emblem on its chest. The heartless hovered over Maia and jingled, green specks of light showered over Maia as her wound slowly closed… Suddenly Maia gasped as her eyes widened. She quickly tried to catch her breath as Sazh looked on in confusion "what…are you?" he asked, Maia look at Sazh and smiled "I'm just Maia… and I know where your son is" and she was soon swallowed in darkness with shadow and the green heartless.

It was a dark world, a world with heartless everywhere submerged in its shadows; rock formations covered markings of strange blue energy that seeped into the ground like water, the clouds in the sky were forever moving and looked angry. Lightning crackled in the sky as a portal to darkness opened and Maia collapsed out of it, her energy had not yet returned as she still felt weak. A large body soon appeared behind Maia and picked her off the ground, the heartless supported her weight as it carried her through the harsh terrain. As Maia, the large body and shadow walked, Maia noticed many heartless of countless shapes and sizes watched her as she went by; there was even a few that she did not recognised as there forms were mighty and fierce looking. She then turned to shadow who was trying to keep up with his small legs "shadow, I know you took Dajh so you could play on the swing. I need to know where you took him" she firmly told him. Shadows antennae drooped as he felt sorry and he raised his craw in a direction, indicating that's where Dajh is.

As Shadow pointed in a direction, a large heatless with monstrous teeth and a demonic look appeared, the creature had red long hair like fur with hints of black, a muscular body and savage claws; the creature levitated as its tail swayed about. The creature extended its reach towards Maia and grabbed her arm; it was clearly twice the size of Maia as it carried her on its arm. Shadow had managed to climb up the creature and rested on its shoulder as it began to move.

Maia turned her head up to shadow and asked "why is he here if Dajh is over there?" the heartless just simple pointed to something in the distance… it was a ravine. As the demonic heartless hovered closer, Maia realised that it was to carry her over to the other side. Maia carefully peered down as she was carried over the ravine; the drop was mighty as it was scary.

The demonic heartless stopped at the other side and dropped Maia off carefully, Maia steadily stood up as her legs where gaining strength as turned to the heartless "thank you" she smiled. The heartless simply did a slight bow and disappeared into darkness, suddenly Maia could hear a slight crying nearby, the crackle of lightning was making it harder to pin point its location. Maia sent shadow off to find Dajh in one direction while she looked in another, she clambered and crawled over tough terrain and huge rock formations, she prayed to herself that Dajh was okay. As Maia peered over another huge rock she noticed something not too far away, it was a group of shadow heartless converged around Dajh. Maia hurried over to the heartless as quickly as her legs could take her, she almost tripped a few times and her legs ached in pain but she wasn't going to give up.

The heartless noticed Maia rushing over and dispersed… all except for shadow. Shadow was trying very hard to comfort Dajh by waving its arms about and doing a sort of strange dance, but Dajh was terrified of it and was crying hard. Dajh's crying suddenly stopped as he heard Maia's voice "hey there, are you ready to go home" she asked while crouched next to him.

Maia wiped his tears away as Dajh hugged her hard, he rested his head in Maia's stomach which got her worried because of the blood, but when she looked at his face… he was fine, there was no blood at all and strangely none on her clothes. As Maia carefully inspected where her wound was, she noticed that there was no blood, no wound and her clothes weren't damaged at all, and she looked at Shadow and thought "maybe the heartless did this". Maia opened a door to darkness and assured Dajh that it was safe as long as he' with her.

On the other side back in Radiant Garden, Sazh was resting his head on the swing as he cried his eyes out. Behind him the portal opened and Dajh ran straight out "daaaad" he cried as he embraced his father. Sazh couldn't believe it and he immediately turned around and hugged his son "Dajh (sob) your back", Maia watched the happy reunion as the sun disappeared over the horizon. After a while Maia began to leave but stopped when Sazh called out to her "why, why did you help me?" he asked curiously, Maia without turning around simply replied "family is something worth fighting for, not matter what the cost" and he walked away, Sazh smiled as he was happy with her answer.

Meanwhile… in an unknown location a strange man donned in a large black cape stood In front of a dozen computer screens monitoring heartless activity. In a deep voice he boomed "INSANITY, APATHY, BOREDOM, FEAR, ANGER, GET HERE NOW", the creatures of emotion appeared before there master and bowed before him… except that Fear had not arrived. "Where is it, WHERE IS FEAR" he shouted as he spun around and struck Apathy in the face with his fist. Insanity giggled as he looked upon his master "he he he we don't know where she is" he said grinningly.

Their master looked upon his children of emotions, his face obscured by the darkness in the room. "my children, that pathetic excuse of a girl has joined with the heartless instead of destroying them… congratulations Insanity, your report was right… for once" he announced, Insanity giggled madly and grinned "what do you want us to do father" he asked. There master walked through the group pushing Apathy and Insanity aside and he stopped "do whatever you want… she's yours now". The group quickly dispersed with great pleasure, the mysterious man turned to his many screens, raised his arm and pointed forwards and cried out "GO AND ASSIST THEM, AZURE"…

Maia walked through the cold lit streets and smiled, although her friendship with the heartless almost caused Sazh to lose his son, she felt that Shadow did not mean any harm to them. Maia turned to her left and looked down to Shadow who walked beside her "hey guess what, it's my birthday soon" she said excitedly "...I wonder what a birthday is like with friends" she pondered.

It was soon the seventh day since Maia's return and it was a beautiful day in Radiant garden, the sun was shining and the weather was perfect for flying kites. A small group of children ran past the committee centre with happy smiles on their faces while they carried their kites under their arms, inside the committee centre a loud commotion could be heard, was it heartless or nobody's perhaps... nope.

Inside, Leon was trying to organise a surprise birthday party for Maia because today was her big day...but things weren't going to plan. Aerith was tangled in some wall decorations, Lightning was nowhere to be seen, Yuffie was making a mess while trying to decorate the cake and Leon was trying to set everything else for her arrival. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, everyone suddenly stopped and thought it was Maia, Leon quickly turned to the others and quietly said "quick we need to hide everything, we are not ready yet". Aerith struggled to get untangle so Leon helped her, Yuffie was holding the mess of cake and wondered where to hide it, Aerith now free hurried to the door ready to open it. As she opened the door, Yuffie panicked and in desperation to hide the cake she threw it out of the back window "Yuffie!" said Leon in shock as he placed his hand on his face.

Lightning walked through the door with Aerith greeting her; Leon sighed in relief and noticed that Lightning was holding a small present "oh, is that for Maia" Leon said in wonder. Lightning smiled and looked at her present "I thought she might like this, it's a gift from everyone", Lea suddenly walked through the door as well and waved at the group "hey there, am I late for the party" Lea jokingly said as he viewed the mess. Leon walked over to Lea and shook his hand "no your right on time, in fact you can help us prepare" he smirked as he handed Lea a hammer and pointed at the decorations, Lea sighed and replied "why do I get the icky jobs"; Leon had known Lea previously when he was rebuilding the castle, the two met under good circumstances and have been friends ever since although Lea rarely visits.

Maia was at home still sleeping in her bed, as she slept her weary eyes she dreamed of Fear; the little girl who she had met at the coliseum. In her dream Fear was warning her about something "Maia they're coming you must get away" she cried, but Maia could barely hear her and tried to listen harder but suddenly she woke up. Maia placed her hand on her forehead and felt the cold sweat, she sat up for a few minutes and thought about her dream and wondered if it had meant something but as she glanced towards the window and saw the sun shining brightly, her concerns were over shadowed by the excitement of her birthday.

Maia quickly got out of bed and out of her clothes and went straight for the tub, after her bath Maia sat down on her bed with her towel wrapped around her. Her hair dripped onto her bed as Maia stared into her wardrobe "what am I going to wear" she thought to herself, she looked down at the pile of clothes on the floor and thought "I couldn't possibly wear my usual clothes, I must choose something more appropriate for my big day".

Maia had made her decision; she walked down the stairs in a backless black sleeveless top with a close fitting figure with a ruby red pencil skirt and black boots, she also styled her long hair into a neat ponytail with a red ribbon tied at the end, her luscious lips glistened with gloss and her cheeks were rosy, as Maia headed to the door, she began to fidget out of nerves.

Maia was about to open the door but quickly turned around and breathed deeply, she had not worn this dress before and did not know how the others would react. After a minutes pause she breathed in deeply and rushed out the front door.

Maia stood still outside her door and sighed with relief, she had made her first steps out in her new dress and it felt good; she felt beautiful and a little embarrassed to show off her figure but she felt strong in doing so. As Maia walked gracefully down the street she noticed people staring at her and commenting how beautiful she looked, Maia blushed a deep red because she knew many of these people and they have normally seen her in her usual outfit, a few of them waved at her and said "happy birthday", she tried to contain her excitement as she waved back. Along the way to the committee centre Maia began to giggle "I can't wait to surprise them, I bet they forgot it was my birthday. Big brother Leon would be amazed to see me in my new dress" she told herself.

At the committee centre, Leon and the others were waiting at the table for Maia's arrival, the newly made cake was ready and decorated with aqua blue frosting and seventeen candles and it was perfectly placed in the centre of the table next to Maia's present. Leon was sat with his arms folded as he waited patiently, he turned and looked at the clock and had noticed Maia was late, he then turned to Yuffie who was resting her head on her folded arms with a bored expression "hey Yuffie, you did tell Maia we needed to see her today didn't you?" Yuffie thought for a moment and casually replied "I think I did". Leon sighed and got up from his chair "I'm going out to look for her", Lea got out of his chair too and replied "I'll come with you", Leon nodded and the two soon left.

Yuffie sighed hard out of boredom and turned to Lightning who sat with her arms crossed, she slyly smiled and said "hey light... have you ever noticed that you and Leon act very similar, maybe you two should be in a relationship", Lightning's face was filled with shock and embarrassment as she blushed and Aerith began to laugh.

As Lea and Leon searched the town for Maia a sudden boom of noise echoed in the distance, Lea turned to Leon with concern and said "that sounded a lot like an explosion", Leon nodded and the two headed off in the direction of the explosion. The two couldn't believe their eyes when they came across the source of the explosion; Mrs Potts cafe was set ablaze and severely damaged, there was several people lying on the ground nearby and some of them had severe burn marks. The fountain that stood in front of the cafe was completely destroyed as water violently spouted out of the rubble and poured out into the street. Lea then pointed out something to Leon; a tall man in a trench coat was among the people lying on the ground...it was Snow.

Snow struggled to get up as Leon rushed over to help "Serah...where's Serah" he said in concern, he then noticed a young girl with a pink ponytail hairstyle a black armband on her right bicep, red plaid-pleated skirt lined with black lace, a white sleeveless dress shirt, a semi-transparent pink sweeper, a extra matching hair tie on her left wrist, black thigh-high stockings and ivory ankle boots. "SERAH" he cried as he rushed over to her, he knelt next to her and placed her head in his arms, she was not responding but she was breathing. Leon stood behind Snow while Lea checked the other bodies "what happened here?" he asked with concern, Snow began held back his tears as he slightly turned his head and simply said "it was Maia"


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: A birthday to remember

Maia was walking through the streets in her new dress and a happy smile across her face; she had decided to take a more scenic root to the committee centre as enjoyed the gorgeously designed houses that lined the street. As she walked she noticed something was very wrong, there was no breeze, the trees weren't moving and yet she could see kites in the sky behind the houses... and even they weren't moving.

Maia stood still and summoned her blade; she listened carefully and observed her surroundings. Behind Maia, a large overweight young man with a low cut silver hair and black skin like clothing covering his body, slowly walked over and stopped a small distance away from Maia, in an unenthusiastic voice the creature said "stop... don't run, or I'll hurt you". Maia turned to face this person and thought to herself "for someone so huge, why didn't I hear him coming" before she could ask why he's here she was suddenly immobilized by a black substance that oozed from the ground and grabbed her feet. The substance swiftly covered Maia as she struggled to set herself free; as she struggled, some of the black substance on her chest began to move away from her. A face was beginning to form in the substance as Maia watched on in shock...it was Insanity's face, his hugely grinning pale face. "Ha ha haha haaa, Helllooo Maia" he laughed in her face, Maia angrily stared back and replied "what are you doing here?" she spat.

Insanity just madly laughed at her as Apathy appeared behind the largely built individual "out...of my way...Boredom" he said while pushing the large individual aside. Maia looked very confused as she asked "why are you all here, what are you going to do with me", Insanity smiled and replied cockily "sorry my dear, I will only answer one question (giggle)". Behind Maia a gorgeous crimson long red hair young woman walked over, she was wearing similar clothing to the others but was more revealing around her cleavage.

The long haired woman grabbed Maia's shoulder and whispered in her ear "we are here for you my dear", Insanity laughed as he replied "my, my Anger, you look disgusting as ever". Anger squeezed hard on Maia's shoulder in response to his comment and caused Maia great pain, Insanity smiled madly at Maia's pain as Apathy and Boredom stood watching. "Enough of this...I'm getting bored" complained Boredom as Anger let go of her shoulder "you're always bored you pathetic imbecile" she angrily responded.

While Boredom and Anger got in a heated argument, Apathy walked over to Maia and held on to Insanity as he opened a portal to darkness beneath them. Insanity sucked Maia and Apathy in while Anger turned and noticed he was leaving "DAM YOU, YOU GIGGLING FREAK" she shouted as she summoned her own portal. Boredom was soon left alone, he sighed and scratched his head as he opened a portal and went through; as Boredom left, the trees began to move again and the strong breeze returned as the kites danced in the sky, a blue jay flew onto a nearby tree branch and stared at the empty street.

Maia awoke in a cylindrical tube with her body covered in cold green liquid up to her neck, she tried to move but somehow the liquid had her immobilised. Through the glass she saw a massive room filled with similar tubes filled with liquid...and heartless of all shapes and sizes. Between a row of tubes leading to hers, Insanity walked over in a hunched position while looking at each tube and chuckling to himself "(chuckle) you like my collection, Apathy collected them himself he he haaa" he laughed insanely. Maia glared at him and replied with disgust "what do you intend to do with all of these heartless", Insanity stood right in front of Maia's tube and stuck out his tongue; on his tongue Maia saw the number five and became confused by it.

Calmly Insanity began to explain things to Maia, just simply for amusement "these tubes of heartless, there my project... our master allowed me to collect a few of them, and in return we must destroy the rest. Their hearts you see is the reason why we destroy them". Insanity's blood lust began to rise as he tried to contain his excitement; he wanted to tell her more just to see her reaction. Insanity then pressed himself against Maia's tube and licked it all over as he giggled; Maia was repulsed by his actions.

Insanity them removed himself from the tube and continued his explanation "the hearts, the hearts, the hearts, oh so much hearts...they give us power because each heart is fuelled by emotion, and as such each emotion is fuelled by hearts. Don't you remember (giggle) you took Apathy's hearts once". Maia nodded as she thought back to Deep Jungle, she had released the hearts by piercing Apathy's heart, "why are you telling me all this?" she asked.

Insanity showed her his number once more and asked "aren't you curious as to how I got my number...and more importantly (giggle) who my master is", Maia looked on in shock "is he going to tell me everything" she thought. Insanity took a few steps to his left and picked up a strange head gear device "(giggle) I made this especially for you, I relish at the thought of seeing you in agony... (Laughs insanely) but rather than inflicting physical damage, I wanted to inflict you mentally".

He carefully put on the devise on his head a pressed on button on the console before Maia's tube. A static of electricity flowed through the green liquid and shocked Maia, her head felt like it was going to explode as images flowed through... it was... Insanity's past...

An unspecified time ago, in a strange and bizarre room filled with tubes of green liquid; one specific tube began to form black blood in its liquid and a shape began to form... Insanity was born. The tube burst open and released the liquid over the grated floor; Insanity fell out and was caught by a strange man in a large black cape. The man checked Insanity's tongue and saw his number; he smiled in satisfaction "welcome to my world... my son...my Insanity" he announced.

A few days after his birth, Insanity was introduced to his fellow emotions; their master had the other four line up and he started to explain the family tree. He began with Fear and spoke out loud "the oldest of emotions, the first to be given a form, this is your sister Fear. I wanted to create a creature that was ferocious and fearsome... but what I got was this failed experiment", as soon as he finished his sentence he struck Fear with his right knee into her face. As Fear fell to the floor and writhed in pain, their master walked over to Apathy "the second to be born, Apathy a creature that barely feels much of anything... and I wanted a creature that didn't feel a thing" he explained and he also struck Apathy with his fist. He then walked over to Boredom "this is Boredom, useless, unmotivated and a waste of time... but he controls time to a certain degree at the cost of a few hearts", Boredom flinched but his master patted him on the shoulder. As he walked over to Anger he quickly spun around and attacked Boredom with a surge of dark energy and then turned back to Anger.

Insanity began to smile as his master continued "Anger... didn't surprise me that you took the form of a woman... what did surprise me though is that you dared attack me in your rage. You have a fiery hot temper and your abilities are fierce... you were the first successful experiment". Their master smiled at Anger and his attention soon turned to Insanity "you are the last to be born and unlike your siblings, you were created from my emotions... you are indeed my Insanity".

Insanity grinned hugely, his master nodded at him and moved out of the way; Insanity stared at his sister Anger as his black blood oozed and took the form of a black sword. He grasped the sword in his right hand and quickly lunged at Anger; his blade pierced a shocked Anger's heart and hundreds of hearts poured out of the wound in her back. Insanity opened his mouth widely as he sucked in all of the hearts while his master patted him on the shoulder in satisfaction "well done my son" he said proudly.

After taking his fill of hearts, Insanity was taken to another room; a room filled with many screens. His master pointed to one screen which showed two young girls, in a room training with Keyblades, he turned to Insanity and explained "the girl to your right is Maori... a Nobody, and to your left is Maia... a Heartless. Both are essential to my plans in one form or another. Maori was to infiltrate an organisation and assassinate a man called Vexen, who had stolen many of my research notes on the replica program. The program was a failed experiment anyway but I wanted him and his organisation gone just in case they were to get in the way".

Insanity smiled as his master explained about Maia "this useless girl was not needed to begin with, I originally wanted a Nobody but in order to get one, a heartless was needed to be born. So to make use of her I infused a heart into her body; a heart of a Keyblade wielder I obtained from the Keyblade wars many, many years ago. Her mission now is to go to other worlds and destroy heartless, so that you my child can become stronger"...

Maia screamed in defiance as Insanity removed the head gear "NO, NO THIS CANT BE...true" she cried out. Maia's eyes drooped as the information was too much to take in "who...who is your master?" she wearily asked. Insanity laughed manically as he pointed down through the row of tubes, a figure emerged through the shadows; he was wearing a huge black cape and had medium white hair and stubble of a beard, he had a simple black sleeveless shirt with a huge strap around his right shoulder extended to his left thigh and blue jeans with wear and tear. The young man held onto a cane tightly as he walked over to Maia's tube, she could not believe her wearily eyes; it was her master... a much younger version of her master.

"master...it cant ...be" she wearily said, the young man passed his cane over to Insanity who grabbed it immediately and began to introduce himself "I am no longer your master as you have failed me as an experiment... I had hoped that heart I had implanted in you would simply attract heartless. But no, you made friends with them instead...pathetic".

The young man walked over to the console to Maia's tube and pressed a few buttons "long ago when I worked with the great Ansem the wise, I was working on a project with a man called Even" he began to explain "the project seemed like a failure from the start, but Even seemed sure it would succeed... but after... some disagreement involving a young man called Xehanort, I was banished from that world".

Insanity tried hard not to giggle as Maia's mind began to break "I arose in a barren world, a world that quickly destroyed me, but from that world of darkness I was woven in its silk and moulded from its substance and soon... I was reborn...I am Damask Resin" he announced. Maia passed out as the green liquid covered the rest of her body, Damask soon left the console, and as he passed Insanity he grabbed his cane and coldly said "do whatever you want with her... she will be a useful tool in your experiments" and he walked away.

Insanity was soon joined by the other emotions excluding Fear, and they stared at an immobile Maia "hehe he, get my blood and begin the experiments" he cheerfully commanded. Apathy picked up a small canister while Anger grabbed Insanity's right arm and tore it off, Insanity writhed in pain but was thrilled by its feeling. Anger squeezed most of the blood out of Insanity's disembodied arm into the canister Apathy was holding, while Insanity slowly grew back another arm from his dripping black blood. Anger repeated this process many times and Insanity enjoyed the pain, after many canisters were filled with blood they started the next process.

Each emotion grabbed a few canisters and phials and walked over to a section of tubes each filled with heartless. Each emotion filled the phials with a few drops of blood and inserted it into a port in the tubes; the blood seeped its way into the green liquid and made its way into the heartless.

The heartless violently shook as its body twisted and ripped apart and repaired itself several times over. Insanity watched a shadow heartless go through this process, he smiled madly as he knew this was Maia's personal heartless; he had taken it yesterday with great force because he especially wanted it. Insanity laughed when the process was finished and the end results were monstrous, it was a heartless no more; it had a similar appearance as before but it was a deep purple in colour with a few small spikes coming out of its spine, its eyes were similar to Insanity's and it had gained a jagged mouth.

Insanity and the other emotions released their creations from the tubes; Shadow arose from the floor with its mouth oozing a purple substance. Insanity picked up shadow and placed his hand on its belly, with a sudden shock of energy he placed emblem onto shadow; as he removed his hand he revealed the image was of a smile with jagged teeth, it was to represent that these creatures were his. As he placed down his creation he decided to name it "hehe he I shall name you all... The Emotionless" he cried out for all to hear.

While the other emotions were busy with placing Insanity's mark on the rest of the Emotionless, Insanity went over to Maia and inserted his last vial into the tube; he watched his great joy as Maia writhed in pain as her body ripped apart and repaired itself many times.

Maia was released from her tube as the green liquid burst out, Insanity watched as she picked herself up from the floor and saw that her appearance had changed; her hair was shorter with bang over her face, he eyes were glaring and her teeth were jagged as she smiled. Her clothes she wore for her birthday turned purple and her pencil skirt had torn on her left side revealing more of her leg, her skin had turned pale and she breathed out a light purple of smoke.

Insanity was entranced at her appearance and thought she was beautiful... but suddenly the Emotionless began to attack the others and Maia grabbed Insanity by the throat and stared into his eyes. He chocked as he looked into her eyes, he saw her emotions had taken control of her... and it was magnificent.

Maia threw Insanity into the tubes with great force and he smashed through many of them before he stopped. The other emotions were outmatched by the sheer numbers of Emotionless; they were stronger than heartless and were fuelled by the desire to feel emotion.

As the emotions defended themselves, Maia raised her left arm towards a wall and fired a huge beam of energy at it. The energy destroyed several tubes and made a huge impact on the wall and revealed what was on the other side.

Maia walked over to the gaping hole and saw that she was flying over the clouds in a massive airship, from the hole she could see several wings on the side of the ship and underneath were many colossal sized jet engines keeping the fortress afloat. She turned around and shouted with a mad look on her face "come my children...let us feel on their pain" and she jumped out of the hole into the sky bellow, the Emotionless stopped fighting their creators and followed Maia out of the hole.

Insanity arose from the twisted metal and glass of tubes and madly shouted "haha haaa... I have failed you master". Damask watched the event from his surveillance room and seemed pleased with the turn of events as he smiled.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Arise my emotions

Snow was strolling through Radiant Garden with his fiancé Serah hand in hand, and the two decided to stop by Mrs Potts cafe for tea and ice-cream. Serah was positively glowing as she sipped her tea, "so Snow, tell me again how you got beaten by a girl" she giggled. Snow looked at her in amusement as he tried to explain "I didn't lose, I threw the match because I felt sorry for her taking on a supreme hero like me" he laughed.

After tea and ice-cream, Snow was chatting with Serah but his focus was soon distracted on a whistling sound that soon got louder. Suddenly there was a massive explosion of dust and rubble pelting towards the cafe; something had struck the fountain outside hard. Snow arose from his seat casting it aside and braced himself for whatever was coming. A sudden beam of energy shot out of the dust, it barely missed Snow who then quickly reacted by shielding himself and Serah in a dome of ice as the beam collided with the cafe. The cafe exploded in a fury of fire and debri as its customers were propelled out by the sheer force of power.

Snow broke through his ice shield and saw that the explosion had blown away the dust and revealed a strange looking girl. He stared at her while he felt the heat from the fire blaze on his back "Maia! Is that you?" he asked in confusion. Maia just smiled as she summoned her blade Phantom to her hand, Snow urged Serah to take cover as he must fight his friend to protect them all, Serah nodded and began to run off. Maia laughed madly as a pool of darkness appeared beneath Serah's feet and blasted her with a beam of darkness; the force knocked her off her feet and propelled her across the ground "SERAH" Snow cried out in disbelief.

With his focus squarely on Maia, he bashed his fists together and positioned himself ready to fight. Maia giggled as Snow charged at her; he threw a hard punch at her but missed as she simply moved her head, so he threw another and missed again. After a flurry of punches he finally connected with Maia's stomach, with his squarely hard in her stomach he looked at Maia who seemed to be crying "why Snow, why...I thought we were friends" she cried. Snow looked at her in shock as his fist eased off her, but as he let his guard down Maia lunged a fist of her own and propelled Snow high into the air, Maia smiled and said "just kidding" and she leapt high into the air after Snow.

Maia prepared her fist as Snow came hurtling down towards her and as he came by, she lunged her fist into his face and sent him crashing into the burning cafe; Maia hovered in the air and was enjoying her newfound power. Maia dived towards the cafe and landed onto the top floor with was burning intensely, the floor creaked and crackled as the fire ate its way into the building; Maia felt the intense heat and couldn't feel any pain as the fire lashed out at her. Maia walked over to a hole in the middle of floor and peered over; she saw Snow had cushioned himself by firing an ice spell before he impacted. Snow barely conscious groaned on the frozen debri as Maia hovered down through the hole, she hovered above him and grabbed him by his throat and stared face to face "did you know that most hero's are known to fly" she giggled as she threw him out of the burning building. Snow later regained consciousness just as a young man came to help him; it was Leon who was joined by with Lea...

After explaining the events of what happened to Leon and Lea, Snow cradled an unconscious Serah in his arms as he struggled to stand. Leon stared at the burning remains of the cafe in shock "h-how could Maia do this... she loved this place like it was her second home... and to severely hurt her friends like this... that's not the Maia I know" he uttered.

Back at the restoration committee centre, Leon and his fellow members attended to the many who were injured in the attack; Leon personally took care of Mrs Potts who received serious burns. After healing a young boy from his injuries, Aerith went over to Leon and helped him use Curaga, Leon turned his head and sighed happily "thank you Aerith. How are the others" he asked. Aerith pointed to a group recovering in the corner near them "those over there are doing just fine, most received minor injuries" she then pointed to the group opposite them being tended to by Yuffie and Lightning "they aren't looking too good I'm afraid... we lost two already" she sadly pointed towards two bodies covered in sheets. "And Serah over there has yet to wake up" she sadly said while pointing towards a distraught Snow holding Serah's hand.

Mrs Potts suddenly coughed as her wounds began to heal "it's working, quickly Yuffie bring me more elixir" Aerith said happily, Yuffie nodded and went to get more elixir from the cupboards; as she did she had noticed Maia's birthday cake, a sad look loomed over her as she began to think "how could Maia do this?". Yuffie soon brought more elixir to Leon and Yuffie and they soon finished healing Mrs Potts; after healing a few more patients, Leon announced he was going out to find Maia and bring a stop to this, and he quickly left with his gunblade in hand and a determined look printed on his face. Although he felt determined to stop her, a tear fell onto his cheek because in his heart though he couldn't bear the thought of harming her.

Meanwhile back at the flying fortress, Insanity had taken Apathy and Boredom with him to see their master. Their master Damask was busy in his study; he was reading from his personal report files of things that have already transpired and thought back to when he had met Maia long ago.

"_Though it's possible to artificially create Heartless known as Emblems, I'm finding it difficult to create just a nobody. Is it possible for me to create something that didn't have a soul to begin with? I have thus resulted to taking more... research materials from town, on my rounds I've noticed something curious. A small child with its parents, the child clearly had a familiar aura surrounding it, for some reason it reminded me of the empty husk of a failed experiment, the results of that experiment had also gave signs of a similar aura... strange." D-Report 6_

Damask's thoughts were long and troublesome, he soon noticed Insanity and his fellow emotions kneeling before him "what is it... you know I don't like to be disturbed" he calmly asked while trying to keep his anger at bay. Insanity giggled as he replied "with your permission master, I would like to take Apathy and Boredom with me to retrieve Maia", Damask arose from his seat and walked over to Insanity. He stared at his son in disappointment for losing control of Maia so quickly, but then he got an idea; he walked over to one of his many shelves in the room and picked up a small box. Damask presented the box to Insanity and he opened it to reveal what was inside; a syringe containing strange red liquid. "Use this as a last result if any of you should need it" he informed them as Insanity picked it up and absorbed it into his body "now go and make war your own" he commanded.

Maia stood firmly onto of a church spire looking over Radiant garden; the breeze was cold but Maia could barely feel it. She was soon joined by Shadow who was an Emotionless; Maia grinned at it madly as she broke her fingers and put them in place again. Suddenly there was a shout from bellow "MAIA!" cried out Lea; he had gone out to look for her as he was concerned. Maia just smiled as she clicked her fingers into place and opened her mouth wide; purple ooze dripped from her gaping jaws as a fiery energy formed at the back of her throat "FIRAGA" she cried as she blasted a surge of intense heat from her mouth. Lea quickly summoned his Keyblade and braced himself; the fire engulfed him as Maia smiled in pleasure, but her smile quickly went as Lea ripped through the flames and cockily remarked "is that all you got, I'm hotter headed than your flames, got it memorised".

Maia pointed towards Lea and a massive group of Emotionless soon surrounded him and began attacking. "What are these creatures?" cried Lea as he dodged attacks from all direction, but they just kept coming and suddenly he was caught off guard and was attacked from behind, sending him into a nearby wall, the impact caused the wall to collapse as he rose to his feet. He looked behind him into the house he had just opened; there was a family inside, a mother and her two frightened children. He knew he had to protect them and so he quickly dispatched a few of the creatures in a flurry of attacks; he jumped and lunged and slashed his way through their numbers with no end in sight.

He used his surroundings to his advantage by running across the walls and firing a few fire spells from his blade, he them dived off the wall and landed on an Emotionless. After landing he somersaulted over and fired a few more fire spells into the creatures bellow. He was quickly surrounded by more Emotionless and they soon had the advantage as they have managed to jump on Lea and began to scratch him with their sharp claws.

There was a sudden gunfire ringing through the air as Sazh barged his way through the Emotionless with his guns blazing; Lea had no clue to as who he is but he was glad that he was there. Sazh aimed carefully and shot the Emotionless off Lea's back, and soon he and Lea had their backs to each other to assess the situation "I'll take the group in front of me and you can take the rest" Sazh smiled, "oh and by the way I'm Sazh, got it memorised". Lea stopped and thought for a moment and replied "hey I'm Lea, and that was my line" and the two men began their attack.

Sazh sent a flurry of bullets in all directions while Lea defended from oncoming attacks, the creatures kept jumping towards them and no matter how many they seem to slay, more keep arriving from somewhere. A few of the creatures began climbing the walls for more advantage, Lea saw them and quickly ran up the wall after them while Sazh covered them both from the ground, Lea slashed his way to the top and as he got to the top he somersaulted back into the group bellow with a surge of attacks.

Maia smiled and raised her arm in front of her; with a simple gesture the Emotionless stopped their attack and moved back. Maia then summoned her blade Phantom and raised it into the air; the sky turned dark as black clouds swallowed the sun and an eerie red glow appeared behind them.

Maia grinned as she said "Meteor", Sazh and Lea looked on in shock as hundreds of burning meteors fell from the sky. Maia hovered off her perch as a meteor collided through the church tower heading towards Sazh and Lea. The two quickly ran into the opening of the house and flipped over a table to shield them and the family from the impact. Booom, the meteor collided and sent off a huge explosion engulfing anything nearby.

Ash rained from the sky as more meteors collided in town, Maia watched in joy at the horror and fright she was causing. But suddenly Maia noticed there was a Keyblade sticking out of her chest, she turned herself around and noticed Lea standing on a nearby rooftop in exhaustion; he had used a corridor of darkness to help escape the impact. Sazh stood next to Lea and fired several rounds of bullets into Maia; she recoiled from each shot and plummeted to the ground. She hit the smouldering meteor in the ground and bounced off into the debri from the church tower. She lay there on her side as Lea jumped down, he looked over at the destruction caused by meteor and noted how close he was to being incinerated. He walked over to Maia but quickly stopped in shock as she rose up and removed the Keyblade in her chest, she madly laughed at Lea as her wounds quickly closed. Lea quickly summoned his Keyblade back to his side and lunged at Maia who just stood there with her arms open. Lea stabbed and slashed at her while she madly laughed as her body healed from each attack; Lea was soon exhausted as he took a few steps back, Maia coldly grinned "is that all, don't you want to kill me".

Lea didn't reply and Maia raised her blade to his head ready to strike, but before she could Sazh shot her in the back. Maia turned to face him and lunged her blade at him, Sazh tried hard to deflect her attacks with his guns but got hit a few times, Lea soon rejoined the fight and Maia single handily fought them both on.

Maia and Lea clashed swords as Sazh shot at her; Maia kept moving out of the way of the bullets and soon attacked Sazh again. No matter how many times they hit her, Maia kept healing from each attack. The sky soon stopped raining meteors but the dark clouds remained and Radiant garden was covered in a light layer of ash.

After a long fight, Maia got bored and she rushed through Sazh's bullets and punched him to one side, Sazh collided through a window and landed smashed onto a table. She turned squarely on Lea and she raised her arm; dark swirls of energy built up in her hand and she was ready to fire at an exhausted Lea. Suddenly the air was filled with laughter as Insanity appeared before Maia and impaled her with his black sword, he grinned at her madly and announced "Apathy, Boredom... destroy the Emotionless...I've got Maia".


End file.
